“I won’t be adding the French flag filter to my Facebook profile photo.”
Hypostcrisy
I won’t be adding the French flag filter to my Facebook profile photo.
I’m also not writing condolence and prayer messages on my Facebook feed, tagged with #PrayforParis.
It is not because I don’t care, or that I don’t feel the profound shock and sadness for what has happened.
In fact, it’s because I find it so absolutely awful that I’ve chosen not to engage in this way. I feel that just changing my photo, writing a few words and a hashtag on social media minimizes (even cheapens) the tremendous, horrific reality of what is going on all around the world, not just in Paris. From suffering arises another trendy social media gimmick, another way for us to show the world how “clued in” and “with it” we are.
The time difference between the Paris attack post and the quirky BuzzFeed posts of some of these individuals is less than 5 minutes. This seems disrespectful, let alone just, to the millions of lives lost in conflict. They are worth more than a quick photo change, an easy hashtagged prayer, or a fleeting status update.
Are these Facebook users merely getting swept up in a social media frenzy and doing it because it “looks good” or “feels” like the right thing to do? Do they pause for a moment just to ask what it means to you to filter your pictures and hashtag your posts: What do you hope to achieve with it and will you be able to achieve it fully in this way? Would you also change your photo if there had been an option for Lebanon, Kenya, Nigeria, Turkey, Palestine…or any other country in the world that suffered just as incredible a loss, even if you’d never heard of the place?
The piece also drives home the idea of the perpetual yet saddening dichotomy between the banal and the spectacular. How Diwali, the most celebrated Indian festival, continues to light up homes, even as the City of Lights darkens in another part of the world, how Victoria’s Secrets models continue to walk the runway to upbeat, cheerful music, overshadowing the cries of the millions that were deceased in the Paris attacks.
I’m also not writing condolence and prayer messages on my Facebook feed, tagged with #PrayforParis.
It is not because I don’t care, or that I don’t feel the profound shock and sadness for what has happened.
In fact, it’s because I find it so absolutely awful that I’ve chosen not to engage in this way. I feel that just changing my photo, writing a few words and a hashtag on social media minimizes (even cheapens) the tremendous, horrific reality of what is going on all around the world, not just in Paris. From suffering arises another trendy social media gimmick, another way for us to show the world how “clued in” and “with it” we are.
The time difference between the Paris attack post and the quirky BuzzFeed posts of some of these individuals is less than 5 minutes. This seems disrespectful, let alone just, to the millions of lives lost in conflict. They are worth more than a quick photo change, an easy hashtagged prayer, or a fleeting status update.
Are these Facebook users merely getting swept up in a social media frenzy and doing it because it “looks good” or “feels” like the right thing to do? Do they pause for a moment just to ask what it means to you to filter your pictures and hashtag your posts: What do you hope to achieve with it and will you be able to achieve it fully in this way? Would you also change your photo if there had been an option for Lebanon, Kenya, Nigeria, Turkey, Palestine…or any other country in the world that suffered just as incredible a loss, even if you’d never heard of the place?
The piece also drives home the idea of the perpetual yet saddening dichotomy between the banal and the spectacular. How Diwali, the most celebrated Indian festival, continues to light up homes, even as the City of Lights darkens in another part of the world, how Victoria’s Secrets models continue to walk the runway to upbeat, cheerful music, overshadowing the cries of the millions that were deceased in the Paris attacks.