Take your facebook picture and shove it

Let us discuss the modern chain letters that is facebook. The following text, has been making the rounds:

"Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of wonderful childhood memories. This is in protest of violence against children."

I am against child abuse. I am pro cartoons. But this little meme does a few things:
a) It accomplishes nothing. There is no money collected for shelters, no real awareness is raised. Just as every single person in America knows about breast cancer, I would submit that 0% of Americans would say that they are pro-child abuse. And yet child abuse continues. Here's a thought, let's all just put this text in our facebook profile: "I do not abuse children." Then through the process of elimination we can find those who did not insert that text, and arrest them.
b) It gives the false smug glow of doing something. "Well *I* showed *my* support," you say. Well that's nice, but you didn't do anything. I don't full agree with Gladwells similar get-off-my-lawn rant about this sort thing with twitter, but I do think that these small things create a sort of false positive energy that doesn't get people to do more for a cause, but to do less because they have already shown *their* support.

The point is, you citizens of facebook can do whatever you want. I wrote on this blog long about ways to volunteer in the DC area, but I have reached a point where I genuinely don't care what anyone else does or doesn't do. I'd like more people to get involved in their community, but I know that this is not a real soapbox, and my fine record in high school debate team has never lead to much actual convincing of anyone in real life. Still, with what little voice I have, I will continue to call bullshit when I see it. And your facebook profile picture is bullshit.