“Share this if you have a heart.”
“Like this to send a prayer.”
“RT to support.”
All of those taglines are followed by some problem facing the inhabitants of the world.
Perhaps they’re saying a prayer for the families of the victims of the Orlando shooting. Maybe they are supporting a beach cleanup. They might feel sympathetic toward children in Africa who are malnourished and have no clean access to water. It could be that they want to help to abused animals.
All of those are viable causes for sympathy, for prayers, for good vibes, for love. Those people and animals deserve our thoughts and feelings.
How does a simple “like” on Facebook or a “retweet” on Twitter convey that message?
The families who lost their loved ones are not going to see a post that has 60,000 likes and immediately feel better. Marine animals are not going to be able to look at a tweet with more than 10,000 favorites and know that someone is coming to help them. The fact is, even if a sea turtle could access social media sites, even if they could see all of the people who sympathized with them online, there would be no one coming.
We like these posts, we show our support online, only to close the lid of our laptop and forget about them. We do nothing to show our support besides like a Facebook post, as if that could do anything to actually fix the problems that face our world.
It seems as if society has developed a nature of acceptance. Most of the time, instead of fixing our problems, we accept them as reality and move on with our lives.
Apathetically, we say: “Oh, the poles are melting. I guess I just won’t ever see a polar bear,” while favoriting photos of polar bears on Twitter when we should be screaming: “The poles are melting! Tell everyone!” as we come up with solutions, such as reducing carbon emissions and limiting the use of chlorofluorocarbons.
The truth in the matter lies in the fact that the vast majority says they care about a certain topic or fixing a problem like climate change or animal abuse through social media, but does not live their life with fixing that problem in mind.
We do not change our lifestyle to fix the problem. We do not donate to charity or start a fundraiser. We do not write letters to Congress or petition the municipal government to promote a change in the community. We don’t even pray for them. We simply like, share or retweet the post.
We are living our lives vicariously through the internet. Are we to blame it on this new technology? Is this the reason for our lax behavior?
A 2013 study by Pew Research Center shows that 90 percent of internet users who are between the ages of 19 and 29 years old use social media sites. In comparison, only about 73 percent of all internet users are actively taking part in social media sites. We have websites that take the place of encyclopedias, we have scientific journals, we have discoveries updated every minute, but we, as millennials, chose to use our time on social media sites? Tell me, is there anything really worth learning on Facebook besides the fact that your friend from middle school just recently broke up with her boyfriend of two weeks?
Regardless of our excessive social media use, it is not the problem.
Technology has provided our generation with many opportunities. Not only do we have more information than we could ever read in a lifetime at our fingertips, but we also have a way to communicate with others. These Facebook posts are a communication tool. There is nothing wrong with the posts. There is nothing wrong with using the internet to fix our problems. There is no problem with the internet, but rather the people who use it. The problem stems inside of all of us.
We’ve let the ease of using technology hinder our judgement. New innovations have made everyday activities much simpler for the average man. With a click of a button, we can find phone numbers for just about anyone. With a few swipes on the keyboard, we are able to access a plethora of online sources. We can have the answer to almost any question simply by asking our cell phone. We don’t have to jump through all of the hoops like our parents did in the past. We have it easy.
That ease has been both a blessing and a curse.
Because we are so accustomed to having it all at our fingertips, we continue to think that way. It’s similar to the Law of Inertia, where an object in motion stays in motion. A brain thinking one way continues to think that way, even when the idea at hand is different.
It’s as if we’ve turned a switch off inside of us. We have become so familiar to the speed and simplicity that comes along with technology, we have pushed any complex tasks to the back of our minds. If we can fix a friendship with a #womancrushwednesday post, why can’t we fix animal abuse with a Facebook post?
It’s just not the same. Facebook posts and tweets are far-reaching, but they are nothing more than proof that we accept the problem. The “like” that you chose to put on that photo of the puppy who was malnourished and hadn’t eaten in days did nothing but solidify the fact that you know it’s happening and are doing nothing about it. When you close out of the tab without a second thought, you are accepting the fact that there are problems, but you would rather do nothing about them.
Don’t blame the Facebook post. It’s doing nothing but communicating to you the problems we’re facing. Every time we like one of those posts and do nothing about it in our own lives, we are only adding to the problem. We are the problem.
I urge each and every one of you to turn that switch back on today. We have been told millions of times throughout our lives that we are the future. Without that switch on for every single one of us, the future looks dim. Do we want to be known for merely accepting our problems through a like on a website that will end up like Myspace in a few years, or do we want to be known for spreading awareness through social media, but actually doing something about the problems in our own lives?
It’s time to stop liking and start living.
