This morning, I logged onto Facebook, as you do, to check up on what my various friends and aquaintances had been up to in my absence. There were the usual 'hangover/bacon' updates, someone tended their turnips on Farmville, then there was a picture of a dying man in a road, followed by an image of a smiling toddler with a very bruised and injured face. Quite the mental assault on the senses first thing on a Sunday morning.They were accompanied by captions exhorting me to 'like' to show respect for these people, to declare my stance against child abuse through the medium of a Facebook 'thumbs up'. I'm sure you've had similar posts pop up in your own news feed. They are currently the bane of my online existence, and are such a phenomenon that they have their own term:
Slactivism
Seriously, it's become that much of a 'thing' that there's an actual word for these Facebook warriors. The best one I've seen so far has to be 'Like this if you love your Grandma. Ignore if you want her to die'. This left me in somewhat of a quandry, as my Grandma has already died. WHAT TO DO?! Would my inaction cause her some trouble in the afterlife? How far does the power of Facebook extend? I particularly enjoy the hectoring tone of them, as if my misanthropic ways will be publicly outed by the Facebook Moral Police if I dare to ignore them.
I think what interests/aggravates me most is people's gullibility when it comes to
these things. A group called 'Yo Mamma's so Fat Jokes' is apparently raising
awareness for children with disabilities, with a graphic, voyeuristic image taken
from Google Images and an emotive status suggesting that if I fail to
'like' this picture, I don't respect or care about babies with
disabilities. Well, seems legit to me, I guess I'd better 'like' it so that my friends and colleagues are aware of just what a
good person I am. There's no way it could be some dickhead chasing 'likes' as a way of promoting their page, or gaining attention on social media to compensate for failing at LIFE.
There are studies to suggest that 'slactivism' does actually lead to greater engagement with charities, as detailed
here. Certainly, social media has encouraged me to become more socially aware and highlighted causes that I didn't know about previously. If it weren't for Twitter, I wouldn't know about
Nestle Free Week, which has become something I actively participate in. I'm all for using social networking sites, twibbons, etc to promote different causes and raise awareness of actual charities. My irritation lies with the fools sat on Facebook, liking inane shit to make themselves feel like better human beings, although it has become a handy filtering tool for muting/deleting 'friends' on my news feed.
Peoples of Facebook, hear me now. I am against child abuse, I dislike cancer and I have enormous respect for the armed services. I strongly doubt that Lil' Wayne is going to record that song for incontinent geckos just because you got 1 million likes. I will assume that you too are against bad things and for good things. Let's just think the best of each other and stop liking shit things. Deal?
A Rant for Ranty Friday - check out
Mummy Barrow's blog for more rants :D
