I've been feeling lately that social media is equatable to the people that they put on American Idol auditions that are there to purposely suck. It's so horrible, and is like nails on a chalk board, but you just can't look away. Why? Because we LOVE watching other people fail, and judging them on the way down. As a society, we've become a bunch of self righteous buttheads that make ourselves feel better by judging everyone else from behind a computer screen or smart phone while we delicately tuck our own skeletons neatly in the closet and pretend they don't exist.
Before you come at with me with pitchforks and torches ablaze, let me preface that social media does have its perks. It's great for businesses and organizations; my FFA chapter's Facebook page has a great following, and it allows our community to be a "fly on the wall," if you will, to what's going on in our classroom and chapter each day. Insert shameless plug: you can follow us here; we're pretty awesome.
From a personal stand point though, social media tends to bring out the meanies...and there are a lot of them. I will admit that I've been a "mean girl" via social media, but I would also like to think that I haven't said anything in a post or comment that I wouldn't say to someone's face...though that's yet to be tested. I've watched women brawl in the comments section over a kid in a winter jacket in a car seat; some women went so far as to say the poster of the photo should have her children taken away and should never have been allowed to have children in the first place...the profanity was abundant, and then the Googled research and articles flowed in about how unsafe it was (and as my sister frequently says, "You can find numerous articles online that will support both sides of an argument, so it's pointless to use Google when defending yourself"). Would these women have attacked this lady in person? Probably not, but it's easy to do from a keyboard when you don't have to look the person in the eye.
I'm becoming appalled more and more each day by the things people are willing to say to each other online; and it doesn't even have to be a hot button issue like food safety, or vaccines, it can be something simple. Like this morning, I came across a blog post by Country Outfitter about Miranda Lambert and how she never thanked her husband, Blake Shelton, in any of her acceptance speeches at the ACM's. Apparently people took to social media to call her out on how distasteful it was...so, because she has a great marketing team, she issued an apology to her hubby via Instagram, and made sure to tell the world how amazing he was (like we didn't know). What floored me more than the fact that this was "newsworthy" was the comments that followed (I'm a sucker for the comments section, they always infuriate me, but I read them anyway). People were literally outraged. The trash talking commenced, and was 72 comments deep by the time I got to the end of them. Here's my question for the angry masses: "WHO CARES!?" Why is this such a big deal that it even requires your input? I especially love when people go after a celebrity snafu; maybe it's because we hold celebrities to such a higher standard than the rest of us, but people really get bent out of shape when a celebrity has a human moment. In this case, Miranda is human just like the rest of us; I mean, I probably unintentionally disappoint my husband on a daily basis...in fact, I know I do, so who am I to judge her for forgetting her husband in a speech?
We need to stop pulling out our self righteous, fictitious perfection, and waving it at people via the comments section on social media. What ever happened to just silently judging people and talking about them behind their backs? (Kidding! I'm just kidding! But seriously, be nice, life is too short.)
