Before starting this writing, I just want to state that this is not a political writing, and I am not picking sides. The examples given are a criticism on an individual level, without taking their cultural background into consideration.
I assume that we are all aware of the ongoing situations around the world. Innocent victims are dying every day due to an on-going war. I guess at this point we all shared our, one-minute stories about how sad we are and shamed celebrities and influencers that kept their silence. After showing how involved and devasted we are on social media, we keep on and we keep on scrolling to move on after that five-minute devastation. Perhaps we also see a new post by that amazing celebrity who is promoting a new product. They shared hundreds of pre-made (and also used by every other person) posts on their stories, so it is okay, they can move on. While I believe that no one is obliged to share anything, it also feels so insincere that those million-follower people are forced to share something about things going on, and get the opportunity to move on if they do. I believe that sometimes it is wiser to keep your silence and live somethings on your own pace, without having the urge to be on social media.
A couple of days ago, when I was scrolling through TikTok I came across a video of a women sharing her “day in the life in war.” She was waking up, using public transport to get to a supermarket. She was buying things to make food for the soldiers, and she was complaining about how hard it was to find gluten-free flour. Then this warrior women, was heroically making gluten-free cookies for the soldiers in war. That was the day in her life as a woman in war. Shared on TikTok. Good for her that she was able to even think about making gluten-free food, making that a priority and bringing the topic to our attention. But I just want to say and quote the wise words of Kourtney Kardashian “There are people that are dying.” Not finding gluten-free food might be an issue in the field and it may be important to be addressed, but is that content really necessary to share? To me, it feels very insensitive to share the sadness of not finding gluten-free food, when there are people who are not able to even know where their relatives are or the fact that they will not even be able to see them again or know what even happened.
One other video that emerged recently and similarly received negative comments was of a college girl saying that she realized she had a story to tell. So, naturally she decided to share it while making her make-up. The video was about how she freaks out when she realizes that her neighbour was Palestinian. She was saying that she wouldn’t have let him in if she knew where he was from even though nothing aggressive happens between the two. The video ends with her showing that she has a pepper spray, so we shouldn’t worry if he ever comes near her again, and proceeds to make the duck-face and a peace sign. This was one of the most ironic scenes I have seen on media. The similarity between these two videos is that they are both using war for fame. Is it worth it to get that five second fame though?
We are so out of touch with reality when it comes to sharing things on social media. I am saying this thinking, and believing, that no one would react this way if they were really talking to someone who was in the war area, but since there is no real, first-hand human interaction when sharing these things, I guess people think that it would not affect others. In reality our words matter. When that video gets 1 million views it means that your words touched to 1 million people. Then shouldn’t we take extra attention to what we are saying in media when the topic is so delicate and could easily trigger many people?
I agree with your post. What shocked me the most was when I saw videos of people mocking “the enemy”. This felt really disrespectful and inhumane to me. Like, how can people be so cruel to mock and imitate dying children etc, and call them terrorists on top of that. That’s insanity.