Did you know there was an actual Mr.
Boycott? Captain Charles Boycott's was born in Norfolk, England in 1832.
His surname has become a word in common use in the English language.
This is in part due to his strong sense of duty to his employer, but also in part due to a lack of sympathy for his impoverished tenants.
In 1872 he became a Land Agent for the Earl of Erne in County Mayo, as well as farming his own land.
Times were tough for tenant farmers, but when they came to Mr.
Boycott for a reduction in their rents he not only refused, but started eviction proceedings.
In 1880 the tenants retaliated and withdrew all labour and services from Mr.
Boycott and his family.
He found himself without servants, workers, stores or mail.
Therefore he was 'Boycotted.
' Effectively he was starved out, and soon left Ireland for England.
The Irish had invented a new word 'to boycott' meaning 'to ostracize.
' Captain Charles Boycott died in 1897.
Boycotts have remained prevalent for centuries but have never seen much change in the traditional approach to getting a point across.
In the past few years, social media has given stereotypical protesters a new and more effective turn on getting their word out.
The social media has transformed boycotting from holding a sign up, chanting, and walking in front of an establishment to simply turning on a computer and posting a comment on a social media site for the world to see.
The only problem with posting something to a site such as Facebook or Twitter is that there are numerous activities going on and your boycott may be drown out by statuses and pictures that are irrelevant.
Between the pictures posted on your wall from last night and the daily tweets about plans for the day, your boycott may not get the attention it deserves.
Recently, a new site has emerged that focuses primarily on boycotting just about anything and everything.
From local businesses, products, employers, major corporations, government politicials, political issues, current affairs, TV shows, to entire countries...
just to name a few.
Or you can stand up and rebuff a current boycott.
This new site allows members to post texts, pictures, and videos about whatever makes them desire to protest, and can even be used as an informative source to see who is getting boycotted in your city, state, and country.
The site is similar to Twitter but is devoted one hundred percent to boycotting.
A perk about this is that if the members are passionate about what they are posting, chances are the members reading about it will be opinionated and stand up for what they believe in as well.
This could affect the boycotts promoted on the site in a great way by not only attracting followers to the boycott but by making a huge impact within seconds of a post.
The interface of the site itself uses "jabs" at subjects being boycotted.
The jabs are parallel to tweets in a sense.
The users on the site have a customizable profile and username that displays their latest boycott updates.
Members can be "friends" with one another, or simply be a "follower.
" Other than reading another person's profile page, a user can also receive others' updates.
What makes the site unique is that members can boycott a business, for example, and the business and its patrons have the opportunity to post a favorable rebuttal and stand up against the claim.
"This ain't your father's boycott.
"