Social media is a part of almost everyone's life in today's day and age, no matter your race, age or gender. You would think this would be an easy factor to unite us all as not only Americans, but also as citizens of the world, yet lately it seems to be having an adverse effect. With all of the recent tragic events happening around the world, one thing is constant: news coverage and social media outbreaks. Who really is at fault for all the ruckus: the people committing the acts of injustice or the people blowing up their social media pages with slander and false statements?
The biggest lure to social media is that it's, again, an easy way to stay connected, especially to people you would not see every day. It's a very cool invention for keeping connected, but in a more relevant way by sharing news. When a news article or video is posted, it is amazing to see how quickly it picks likes, comments and shares. While most things do not go viral, others do in a matter of days, hours or even minutes! The unfortunate downside to this, however, is that we do not for sure actually know what happened other than the speculation we read about or with a video of what we actually see. Just like the famous phrase, "Give him an inch, he'll take a mile," this holds true. It's ludicrous how people will take these events and twist them into their own interpretation and their "theories" or "opinions" spread like a forest fire. When things spread around that easily, so does the ignorance. You see, unless you were actually at a place where an event took place, you do not in fact know the whole story or what all happened. What I am not trying to convey is that we should silence our opinions, because that is just simply not right; however, what I am saying is that maybe sometimes it is better to take a slightly milder approach when revealing how you feel instead of coming off as a disputatious jerk. Of course, that goes both ways. Just because someone posts something obnoxious flashing with their opinion does not mean you have to react.
As much of a benefit social media is to our society, it can also be the achilles' heel. Not just in recent events, but looking back into cases of terrorism and even serial murdering, there is almost a sense of egotism involved in which the party responsible is seeking. Sad, right? But think about it for a second. For these people, this is an intelligible way to get their 15 minutes of fame, or if they do something big enough, maybe even go down in the history books forever. To be honest, it's kind of an easy way, too. Some parties responsible are begging and yearning for some attention, just searching for a way to become famous and, in a dark way, lots of them seem to have no problem with murdering innocent people just so they can make it on the cover of a magazine, the daily news or even a newspaper.
I think it is very unfortunate that we have let ourselves get to this point, especially as a country. We should be standing united and together with arms linked ready to take on anyone, not trying to ruin reputations or further brand any stereotypes and slander them. As a whole, we are broken. Sometimes, however, it takes being broken to realize how strong you are in the first place. I think we need to quit the harassment on our boys in blue, activist groups and even political figures, and refocus that energy in a positive manner becoming whole again, and we will be unstoppable.
