Sean Reiser
Someone Please Explain to me the Icon Overlays for Iran
June 21st, 2009 Recently to “support Iran” people have been tinting their social media icons green. I know form of “protest” has a history. Originally it was done on LJ and Twitter to protest the service. This made sense, awareness was raised within user of the service and the owners saw that there was a protest going on. It was the social media version of protesting in the streets.
This has been repeated with several online protests, centered mostly around freedom of speech and access issues. Again this made sense, not everyone knew about these issues so awareness was raised. In theory these people wrote officials in government and registered their opinions.
Fast forward to today… election irregularities and people are rioting in the streets in Iran. People are tinting their twitter icons to “help the people in Iran”. I asked earlier on twitter: How exactly does a green overlay help Iran? Will Armadinajad say, “Now I see these green icons I’ll hand over power”? Are there people unaware of the situation in Iran? I really don’t see how changing the color of your icon, in this situation helps anyone. But I might be missing something so please, someone explain to me how it “helps”.
Sean Reiser, 40, is a developer, technologist, and amateur photographer. Sean has spent the past 20 years as a programmer, system architect and development manager. He is a life long New York resident.
Sean currently serves as the President and Chief Geek Officer of Repair Sense, Inc.. Please go to that site with any professional inquiries.
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The Green Icon or overlay doesn't help Iran, it is a show of support. Just like a Yellow Ribbon from days of old, it is a simple show of support. Either you support them or you dont, that is your choice. If you are like many here in the US, you have this "It's not my problem" attitude and don't have a clue or care about what is going on in Iran then do nothing. If you on the other hand care about humanity and the outright injustice that the Iranian government is perpetrating on its people and would like to show that you will support a people rising against that injustice, tint your icons green.
It's funny, its not that I have a "not my problem" attitude, it's that I prefer to take steps that can actually change the outcome. I have called my senators and congressman. I have written the state department. I did these things because I believe they can help. OTOH, I don't see how changing an icon on a social network has the same effect. I do wonder how many folks that have gone through the process of letting their voice be heard in a productive way.
I also have a problem with the attitude that if you don't change the color of your icon you don't care. I think it's just the opposite. I think the Iraq situation is too big to treat it like it's Six Apart adding advertisements on Live Journal.
The icon thing is not meant to have the same effect as contacting your congressmen. It's predominantly a way for people to publicly advertise their own beliefs. It's a way to say "hey everyone, I have $OPINION about $ISSUE," analogous to wearing a ribbon or t-shirt or slapping a sticker on your car. As with the shirts and badges, the person behind the icons may or may not actually be doing anything to effect actual change.