What is Virtue Signaling and why is it bad

When the term “virtue signaling” comes up in conversations, do you really understand it? Oftentimes, people are either offended or in agreement by the term. Virtue signaling is the act of demonstrating you are a good person in public, a way of keeping up appearances over anything else. When a person or organization is called out for virtue signaling, it means they are only doing good on a surface level. 

Virtue signaling has its dangers because It encourages a reduced empathy for others with warped motivations and surface-level ideas of justice. When we look at big companies doing shallow campaigns for “virtue,” the bare minimum becomes a standard. Doing something good for other people should come from a need for justice or empathy; however, with big companies and celebrities giving a small shout-out to the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month or to African Americans during Black History Month, we see they only do this to maintain their popularity. We can see that one of the greatest perpetrators of virtue signaling is social media. 

Through social media, we can see the greater public’s virtue signaling. Offering support for an issue becomes as easy as reposting a TikTok or sharing a post on your Instagram story. We can see this especially now with the current ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza. Many people will portray their support through social media posts and nothing else. While these posts are important in spreading awareness and information, people should not only be doing this just for the recognition. 

The best way to get around the issue of virtue signaling is to do more for a cause. When advocating, it is important to do something that directly affects those involved in an issue. For example, protesting out on the streets or directly donating to a fund. However, it is still possible to advocate through social media in meaningful ways. When posting make sure it addresses the issue directly and give as much information you can on the issue. Through social media you can educate others on an issue. 

When advocating for others it has to come from good motivation, showing that you care about an issue is important but it has to come from a good place