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It’s an election year, and tensions are running high in every party. It doesn’t matter if you’re building walls, fucking up your email account management while wearing a pantsuit, or feeling a questionable Bern – everyone has an opinion, and they need it heard. Right now.
I love social media. I spend hours each day ignoring my own personal responsibilities by perusing mostly Twitter and Instagram. I even occasionally get paid small amounts of money to write about a myriad of topics on this nifty little website. It’s a beautiful thing, social media. But on the other hand, it seems that every election year, things tend to get very ugly. Very ugly, indeed.
You see, Facebook used to be about status updates. Purely about keeping up to date with what your pals were up to at the moment. Back in the good old days, it was a straightforward and simple platform. No Youtube shares, Buzzfeed articles, or Friendship Anniversary photo collages were to be found, cluttering up the feed. It was a much simpler time. But now? It has evolved into a political word-vomit monster of epic proportions.
I complain about Facebook often; I know I do. But necessities such as my law school class section groups and other assorted group pages keep me logging back in. I wish I could quit it, I really do. Every time someone shares another wild-haired Bernie meme, video of Hillary telling me that joining a gang is like having a family, or how much Donald Trump loves the Mexican people and taco salads, I’m inching closer and closer to the edge. I wish I could close my eyes and it would just disappear. But, no. It only seems to grow stronger each and every day.
It honestly disturbs me how so many people seem to think that their political rants they spew online have any sort of lasting effect, past the initial personal relief they experience by dumping all of that anger off their chest and onto my timeline. By all means, exercise your freedom of speech. I’m very thankful to live in a country in which we are given the opportunity to make complete asses of ourselves via online platforms. You do you. I’ll do me. Just please try and wrap your head around the fact that a simple Facebook post or retweet does not make you a political crusader or scholar of any sort.
You may be “voicing your opinion” by tweeting, sharing, and posting, and that’s great. But that also doesn’t mean that you still aren’t politically apathetic. Our generation would rather sign an online petition or “retweet for X, favorite for Y” than ever leave the comfort of our cozy lofts with artfully exposed brick walls and piping. In fact, we are what the politicians and campaign managers like to call, “all throat and no vote.”
Millenials love to complain. We love to blog and tweet and post about all of the things in our daily lives that we deem an inconvenience. Anything from calling out shitty airlines on Twitter, to griping about the insanely long lines at Trader Joes. I’m literally complaining right now. When it comes to politics, we very much enjoy bitching and moaning. But our effort pretty much stops right there. We complain a hell of a lot for a group of overly-educated and intelligent young people who refuse to actually vote in local elections, midterm elections, and presidential contests. It’s like you’re screaming and throwing rocks at the sky, but just standing there until they fall back down and smack you in your face anyway.
I rarely engage in political discourse via the internet. I prefer to keep my political opinions to myself. Though I truly believe that some friendly political discourse is healthy and potentially helpful, in my experience, it rarely winds up being friendly at all. It usually becomes a pissing match of who can quote their upper-level political science professor from their senior year public policy and administration course the loudest. Don’t get me wrong: I am neither apathetic, nor overly-invested. I’m right there in the middle, probably with most of the likes of you.
This is not meant to criticize those having strong political beliefs and opinions. I just want to raise awareness surrounding the growing problem that is political rants on our social media platforms. They’re taking over our timelines and they’re really harshing the mellow. I wish we would all take a stand against them. Just say no to blind-sharing articles and videos that have catchy or offensive headlines. Have a little self-respect when you’re trolling the comments section, no matter how difficult that may be. Political change happens from outside the confines of your office and computer monitor, if that’s the kind of thing that you are into.
Go ahead and bitch about overpriced brunch, your coworker that chews so loudly that the entire floor can hear him, and the fact that your company won’t match your 401K investments to your liking. Bang your fists on your faux-wood desk in your cube and demand better catered lunches at mandatory staff meetings, more dependable WiFi access, and reasonable bonuses. These rants are rants that I would be proud to stand behind on any given day. I might even throw them a “like.” Though we may be many, together, we stand as one. Post grads all over, unite.
But alas, it is an election year, and many people have a lot to say about all of this politickin’. My “unfollow” button stays hot. Next time you’re itching to share a fire-flames political take and your cursor is hovering over that “post” button, why don’t you just save us all a lot of heartache and close out of your Facebook account. Forever. .
Image via Shutterstock
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@taylordoestweet
@itsthestovallshow
sexychocolate
How PRIVILEGED of you to complain about ME exercising MY RIGHT to free speech!!!!
Better start saying what you really want to say fast because that window is closing.
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My favorite is when people change their profile pic after a terrorist attack, like making it rainbow after Orlando or French colors after the numerous attacks there. Because standing in solidarity by changing your profile picture will really show those terrorists that you mean business!!
“Share of you’d like ISIS to tone it down a little. 1 share=1 please.”
“Wait, she changed her profile pic? Oh fuck that! We’re not going anywhere near her town now!”
“She stands in solidarity with France? Oh shit, I was totally gonna blow myself up in her town but now I’m terrified. Maybe I’ll try the next town over.”
Only if it’s a white country though.
Eh, it shows that people care if say someone you know got killed. Not the worst thing in the world.
I’m just tired of seeing the opening scene of The Newsroom as a justification for why we aren’t the greatest country anymore.
The political opinions in law school are arguably even worse. Since everyone already thinks they are the smartest guy in the room, the opinions morph into statements of fact and classmates will constantly tell you why their world belief is correct. Prepare yourself for November, it’s going to get worse before it gets better, unfortunately.
Rest assured, I already want to wring some necks. I have the distinct pleasure of being seated in front of a guy who loves to correct our professor. We haven’t even been in class for a month.
Wait, do you have assigned seats in law school?
Ah, professor corrector. Arguably, one of the worst people in law school, right after no shower bro, but ahead of “so blessed to be here” girl.
Hillary’s guilty.
I’ve yet to meet anyone who has changed their opinions/beliefs based on a meme. I’ll admit to my biases and convictions, but that’s also why I started a side blog and shared it with maybe 3 people. Overall, no one gives a shit.
I agree. We will all always have our bias and our opinions, and It is difficult to change. That being said, a friendly political debate is something many enjoy, but it is insane how both sides jump to conclusions, blind share, and attack one another. It’s a shame that there isn’t a productive middle ground.
And unfortunately the least informed tend to have the loudest voices.
I was about to type that as I read your reply. The dumbest people seem to have the loudest voices now, especially since their voices are so easily broadcasted across multiple social media platforms. Lucky for everyone else though, is they probably won’t be turning out to vote at a high percentage.
The thing that has spiraled out of control is the all or nothing mentality. You can vote for a candidate without supporting all their positions or actions. Personally, I feel that Hillary is the best choice as far as foreign relations go because she has played the game for so long and knows the right way to make allies and keep relations. Doesn’t mean I also agree with how she conducted her electronic documents. Conversely, I agree with Trump that America has lost its edge in education and lost a lot of good, stable jobs to globalization. Doesn’t mean I think every person with origins south of our border are bad people.
Yeah, she definitely has the best foreign policy experience. Look how great Libya turned out!
I disagree. I think the problem is people who only vote on one issue, i.e. 2nd Amendment or Gay Rights or a Woman’s Right to Chose. Oh, candidate XYZ has no foreign policy experience? Who cares, because he’s the only one who is pro-choice so I have to vote for him. Or, it’s time we put a woman in office so I’ll vote for Hillary no matter what.
I love those people who say they’ll vote for Hillary because “it’s time to put a woman in the White House.” I guess they don’t realize that it’s just as sexist to vote for a someone because she’s a woman as it is to not vote for someone because she’s a woman.
I agree that one issue voters are also an issue. I didn’t mean for the post to come across as that. I meant that you see a lot of people posting online with a video or a quote from Trump or Hillary with something like “Good point” or whatever and they are immediately chastised for “agreeing” with every single position the candidate takes. With the two party system, voters need to decide on candidates based on how the whole of the candidate’s viewpoints match with the voter’s. There are positions on issues that voter’s personally deem as “make or break” and other positions that they can live with that the voter doesn’t agree with.
On any given day, my timeline will consist of some variation of the following:
– Feel the Bern (Even though he’s out of the fucking race)
– Obummer is coming to confiscate our guns
– Blatant, overt racism
– A lecture from some basic, air-headed white chick (Think: TGDAG) about how we need to check our privilege, typed out from the fancy apartment she lives in that’s paid for by her parents
– Exploitation of the latest tragedy
– Memes that lower your IQ after seeing them
And on, and on, and on. Facebook is a cesspool.
The amount of 9/11 truthers who feel the need to spread their insane theories on FB is a little unsettling as well.
Jet fuel can’t melt steel beams though
Its really entertaining to read those truther posts though. And conspiracy theories in general.
Social media was a mistake.
Yes, please keep it to yourself. You are ruining my otherwise robust cat and baby picture content stream.
It’s actually getting worse (I’m not even sure how that was possible) with everything going on right now. I’ve had a few Caucasian friends on FB rant and say that everyone who sits back and doesn’t help the BLM movement is pretty much a racist and should be ashamed of themselves.
I’m like, nah I’m just going to exercise my 1st amendment right to freely not say shit