“Slacktivism”: The self-deluded idea that by liking, sharing, or retweeting something you are helping out.

It’s an important issue and something we should do better at as a society, but I was surprised to discover that all they expected from an “ambassador” was to retweet their announcements on the day and hit the share button on Facebook.

It felt a bit lazy to be keeping the activity down at the awareness-raising level (as a journalist, that’s all I really do for society anyway).

But I was gobsmacked to see that, on the day, my fellow ambassadors made up half the Legislative Assembly including the Deputy Chief Minister, Andrew Barr.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that Andrew was supporting action on youth homelessness. The cause is worthy and I applaud the support.

But we’re not talking about 14-year-olds who aren’t allowed out at night. We’re not even talking about concerned citizens or even influential members of the community.

We’re talking about the very heart of government hitting the retweet button instead of rolling their sleeves up and doing something about the issue.

Slacktivism is better than apathy, but it would be good to see more from elected leaders. Even for this journalist; it would be nice to be asked to do more.

Spoilers: The ruining of a surprise in a book, movie, tv program, etcetera.

SPOILERS and social media are co-existing particularly precariously right now.

The problem is Rupert Murdoch and his crafty play for exclusive distribution of the wildly popular “Game of Thrones” series via his Foxtel empire.

This sets two contending forces at play.

Most Australians do not have Foxtel, and don’t want to be forced to pay for bundles of programming just to watch the one show they like. But it takes time, a few hours at least, for the illegal download community to populate the internet with copies and then retrieve them.

Meanwhile, people who have bitten the pillow and signed their lives over to Foxtel want to enthuse about Joffrey’s much deserved demise and speculate whodunnit.

That “GoT” is particularly popular with demographics dead set against paying for anything while also being heavily engaged in social media just adds fuel to the fire.

Having paid for the sodding Foxtel it seems more than a little unfair we’re not allowed to emote about it on pain of unfriending.

Pouring salt on the wounds the events being depicted this season are from the book “A Storm of Swords”.

First published 14 long years ago in 2000.

So the spoiler angst is coming from people who can’t be bothered reading the books, or paying to see the show.

“Freetard”: One who firmly believes in not paying for e.g. software, films, music. Generally an avid proponent of p2p filesharing

SO, a very large population that don’t want to pay and can’t be bothered to read are getting worked up about people who can be bothered and who choose to pay doing no more than a slacktivist by retweeting spoilers.

If only we could channel all this energy into something like youth homelessness.

All definitions gratuitously cherry picked from Urban Dictionary

John Griffiths is online editor at citynews.com.au