You're mad, you've been wronged, or someone with more power than you is doing something you disagree with. Your first instinct may be to sign an online petition, and that's okay. You shouldn't stop there, though.
Why Online Petitions Aren't Always Enough
When something happens that outrages people, the first response is "let's sign a petition!" Whether it's for financial reform, unlocking cell phones, or preventing Ben Affleck from playing Batman, it doesn't take long to find an online petition for just about any cause you can think of. While some of these can have an effect (the White House did respond to the cell phone unlocking petition), many either get ignored or lose focus amidst a sea of similar petitions.
The trouble is that petitions, by themselves, are not supposed to be a means to an end. They exist as evidence of public desire for action. If enough people send a coherent message to the right targets, a petition can be useful. However, a petition can easily get derailed, too. For example, a petition might:
Speak to the wrong target. The White House has set a precedent by allowing petitions to be made directly to the executive branch (with a guaranteed response if a certain threshold is met) but laws are made and repealed by Congress. While asking for the help of the President is okay, a petition to ban or mandate a practice might be more appropriately directed to someone else.
Appeal to the wrong audience. Awareness is an important word for activism, but it's also dangerous. Everyone can't be supportive of every cause 100% of the time. Sharing a petition to a hundred of your tech illiterate Facebook friends about the importance of copyright reform will probably not have as strong of an effect as getting the attention of five interested and enthusiastic members of a technology forum. While it may be a few more signatures on the page, the interested people are the ones who will pass it on (and do more, as described below).
Spam everyone. Because there are no shortage of petitions online, we all pick and choose what we pay attention to. This means, necessarily, that we filter out the noise. A person—no matter how well meaning—that shares multiple petitions a week is more likely to get ignored than someone who carefully chooses what to support and knows about the cause they're backing.
To be clear, there's not anything inherently wrong with signing an online petition. However, it's also one part of a much larger machine that leads to change. It starts with raising awareness and ends with solutions to problems. Signing a petition is nice, but if you want to do more than put your name on something that may or may not lead anywhere, there are other things you can do.
Contact Your Government Directly
In the case of public interest issues, contacting your government may be the best way to get things done. However, it helps to know which parts of government can do what. If it's a national or international issue, contact your representation in the appropriate branch of government. If you're not sure who that is, you can use tools like Map Your Representatives to find out who represents you at nearly every level, from national to local.
If your complaint is a local issue, you may be able to go talk to someone in person or at least raise a concern with someone who can more directly affect a solution. Petitions can be most effective at the local level if you can get enough names because putting together a long list of people in support of a local issue is harder. However, it also means that it's a bit more work.
If you find that your local representation isn't paying a lot of attention to your issue, contacting local news may also be an option. Getting national coverage may be hard, but your town's local news station may be interested in bringing attention to your story. The news can be a powerful tool to put pressure on public figures, whether they're in government or private companies.
Support Non-Profits
If the issue you're trying to advocate for is a national issue, it can feel like a full time job just to figure out everything that's going on. Fortunately, for someone out there, that is their full time job. Non-profits, advocacy groups, and consumer watchdog organizations are groups whose sole raison d'etre is to fight for change in a particular area.
Of course, advocacy groups are sometimes double-edged sword. We usually refer to the ugly end as "lobbyists" and many of these organizations spend all their time and money pushing for changes in a specific area (since, you know, that's their job). Figuring out which organization to support can be a chore in itself, but fortunately, these groups frequently have ways for you to get involved on specific issues, rather than blindly supporting everything the group does. For example during the internet blackout in protest of SOPA and PIPA, the Electronic Frontier Foundation was one of many places you could make your voice heard.
Depending on your preferred issue, there could be dozens of organizations devoted to the cause, so when you find an advocacy group you're interested in, research their culture. In the same way that you can find out a lot about a company's culture before you work for them, you can research an advocacy group and see if they're a good fit for your beliefs or interests. Follow them on social media or get in touch with a representative to find out how you can get involved, whether on specific issues or as a whole. You can also send in letters to representatives of the group if you want to raise awareness of an issue or donate money or time. While some groups are large with deep pockets, many have frequent shortages of cash and manpower and will usually accept both.
Contact the Companies
Not all issues require government intervention (and knowing which ones do is essential to accomplishing your goal). Oftentimes, making complaints directly to the for-profit companies that are the subject of your complaint can help.
Research the company you have a complaint against and find the best way to lodge a complaint. That may involve contacting them online or writing a letter. If the company isn't responsive, contacting an independent organization like the Better Business Bureau may be in the cards. If you found or created a petition in favor of a specific change, now would be the time to bring it up, but make sure it gets seen by the right people.
Of course, the best weapon at your disposal if you want to change a company is to simply buy elsewhere. If you decide that a particular company isn't worth supporting anymore, shop at a competitor. Don't just leave, though. Let them know why you left. Again, write a letter to the company, or just post your story online. And speaking of voicing your story...
Tell Your Story
Word of mouth and personal stories are a great way to build support for a person or organization. They're also among the best ways to protest something. Sites like The Consumerist exist to voice complaints about corporate misbehavior, and news organizations frequently look for human faces to put on public interest stories.
This method of speaking out helped reverse a recent policy decision from AOL. The company instituted a change to how it matches 401k contributions that would have resulted in employees receiving potentially thousands less each year. Because employees took to the internet to tell their story and it gained traction, AOL's management decided to reverse the decision. The change came about partially due to employees contacting the higher ranks of management and partially from public exposure to the story.
Even your representation in government is interested in retelling your story if you can find a politician that's pursuing your cause (and while it's easy to be cynical about government, you can usually find at least a couple politicians that are on your side, no matter what the issue is). This particular method is perhaps most useful if you know how to tell a good story, but even if you're not eloquent or charismatic, you can usually find someone who would be willing to relay your story for you.
Do It Anyway (Within Reason)
Breaking laws and violating terms of service are, generally, bad ideas. In the latter case, violating the rules a company gives you can result in losing services or products you rely on. In the former, the consequences can be much worse. With that disclaimer made, it's worth pointing out that you're probably violating some laws every day.
Civil disobedience has historically been used to protest laws or policies that are unjust or unfair. It is not a good idea to break any rule you disagree with just to get what you want. However, if you feel strongly about an issue, protesting by doing something in spite of restrictions can be an effective method for sending a message. Sometimes it's something as innocuous as ripping a DVD that you own, or as significant as protesting unjust laws (though you should always have some self-awareness concerning where on that scale you land). There are also times where you may find yourself violating company policies or terms of service that are not necessarily crimes.
It's very important to note, however, that committing acts that you know are in violation of policies or laws is risky and not to be taken lightly. If you can find a way to resolve your conflict with a person, company, or law amicably, that should always be preferred.
Of course, all of these methods only scratch the surface of what change really entails. Sometimes getting things the way you want only involves changing a certain law. Other times, it involves being part of a cultural mindset shift that can take decades. Having discussions and sharing ideas may be a pretty invisible way of shaping the world, but it's also essential. So, the next time that you find yourself motivated enough by an issue to sign a petition, take a look around to see what else you can do, because there's no limit to the actions you can take.
Main photo mixed from Oliver Kliewe.
Photos by DMichael Burns, Wikimedia Commons, Rob LaRosa, and John Benson.