# Switch off from Twitter and Facebook for a day in aid of autism charities

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2010/11/02/switch-twitter-and-facebook-day-aid-autism-charities/
- Published: 2010-11-02T09:52:26+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Sometimes doing less of something or nothing at all can be a good approach. An international
coalition of autism charities did that yesterday, or rather they encouraged their
supporters to do that. It was the perfect opportunity to switch off from Facebook
and Twitter for one day, all in a good cause.

There was an appropriate message of course.

Communication Shutdown organisers said: “Our aim is to simply encourage a greater
understanding from people outside the autism community. Social network users have
become reliant and even addicted to platforms like Facebook and Twitter. And if 
they shutdown for 1 day, they will feel a sense of disconnection and a sense of 
frustration. By creating a little empathy, we hope to encourage a wider understanding
and acceptance of people with autism – an understanding we recognise those in the
autism community already have”.

## Advertisement

By signing up to the campaign you are encouraged to donate $5 or more and in return
you get a widget and an app which let your friends know that you’re supporting the
campaign.

The non-event is a well-established fundraising activity: donors pay money _not_
to turn up to an event, for example. So this isn’t new, but it is a good take on
social media. We’ve had blogathons and twitathons of course, but this campaign turned
that approach around: less can often be more.

https://communicationshutdown.org

 * **[Digital Death campaign raises $950,000 in a few days](https://fundraising.co.uk/2010/12/17/digital-death-campaign-raises-950000-few-days/)**(
   17 December 2010)
 * **[Some (belated) New Year fundraising resolutions](https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/01/25/some-belated-new-year-fundraising-resolutions/)**(
   25 January 2011)
 * **[A new focus for UK Fundraising's Facebook page](https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/04/12/new-focus-uk-fundraising039s-facebook-page/)**(
   12 April 2011)