It’s a disappointing but familiar cycle.
You start your day by waking up to another harrowing news notification. It feels like it happens every morning, but it doesn’t make it any less disheartening. In fact, the cuts feel deeper each time.
Desperate to take action, or at least for some form of commiseration, you check social media to see what people are doing and saying about it. Maybe someone will share your fears or have figured out what everyone can do to help, right?
You click through Instagram Stories and anxiously refresh your TikTok feed, but it’s evident: Your favorite celebrities and influencers have remained completely silent, yet again.
Some of us tuned into our country’s persistent social justice issues years ago, and others are just now beginning to grasp the gravity of our political climate. Either way, the discussion about influencers speaking up about politics and social issues (or, to be more accurate, not speaking up) isn’t new — but the discourse rages on regardless. Today, amid nationwide ICE raids, protests against President Donald Trump’s administration, and more, it feels like all anyone can talk about.
Maybe it’s because it feels less intimidating to stand up for what you believe in when you know you have someone powerful in your corner, or maybe it’s just because you want the people you support to share your values. (After all, the people we choose to follow and interact with make money off our engagement, so it’s understandable that we wouldn’t want to reward their inaction with compensation.) But despite the reason why we want to hear from these influencers on the issues that matter most to us, I’m starting to realize that wasting my time debating about my favorite influencers’ responsibilities to speak up against social injustice is almost as harmful as them not saying anything at all.
Sure, it’s important to get the message spread as far and as fast as we can, but frankly, I’m done waiting around for celebrities and influencers to be the catalyst for change, or even to hop on the train at the very last second.
There’s something vulnerable about investing your energy in keeping up with another person’s life, and part of the “deal” we make with them is that they’re supposed to be invested in our lives as well. When we click that follow button, we do so with the inherent belief that we are their intended audience — that they make their content because they care about and want to engage with people like us. But I’m calling B.S. on that.
I’m tired of watching the cycle repeat itself: reading listicles about who has and hasn’t spoken out about the government’s latest human rights violation, begrudgingly liking influencers’ selfies and OOTDs as they go out to dinner while protests are going on right outside their West Village apartments, and watching people like me waste their energy on discourse about celebrities’ social responsibilities.
In the end, why should I care whether my favorite (or least favorite) celebrities are on the right side of history, when all I can really control is where *I* stand?
I don’t want to spend my mornings hopelessly staring at my phone screen, wondering if today is the day the people I follow on social media will choose to use their platforms for good. I want to do my own research and form my own opinions. I want to educate myself and others on our rights in this country that seems hell-bent on taking them away. I want to be a part of my community — I want to volunteer, I want to go to protests, and I want to engage in the conversations that the public figures we’re all so obsessed with won’t. They might not care, but I do, and that’s what matters.
Of course, it’s fine to be disappointed, or even angry, when someone you once supported turns out not to stand for the things you once thought they did. I, too, pride myself on how selective I am about my social (and parasocial) circles and the content I consume. But dwelling on it is a waste of energy that would be better used actually taking action.
Even if you don’t have millions — or thousands, or maybe even hundreds — of followers, you’re still someone who can show up and speak up. You have power, and every minute that you spend refreshing your favorite influencer’s TikTok page and waiting for their take is a minute of your own valuable time that you’re wasting. You have a voice and can use it for good, regardless of whether your fave is doing the same.