*This article does not represent the views of Her Campus FSU
Courtesy: Entrepreneur
In an effort to effectively procrastinate all research papers and major projects while attending college, most students willingly devote themselves to social media. Although so often benign and previously underestimated in the power it would have on the socio-political sphere of this generation, social media is the force which now significantly augments the dictation of attitudes of over one billion people. Globalization of information through social media has defined a more efficient, powerful rhetoric with which we are able to discuss events and ideas with immediacy and fervor. But just as economic globalization opened the world up to hyper-efficiency and vast networks of child slave labor, so too has social media provided us with a double-edged sword. This is all very important, I promise.
Florida State University is a university like any other university, with students, research papers, major projects and, inevitably, social media. To this point, FSU has a varied population, which has produced a varied and interesting social media culture. Some people just want to post photos of vacations other people can’t afford, mildly inappropriate selfies or perhaps they’ll get into a “shouting” match in a comment section about Donald Trump. This is true for most of social media. It is not an enigma that should be demonized, nor should it be revered too much. But it is an enigma – it is sometimes a beastly creature that even those who produce it cannot fully control. Entire identities are made or broken by a wealth of Instagram followers or a lewd post from an ex-partner. Social media is unassailably and inescapably important.
In the wake of the attacks in France, Lebanon, Nigeria and Egypt (among others which have yet to be reported on), social media has once again become the platform for discussion, reflection and selfies…? Previously, this article has dealt in fact. Now, for a statement of timely opinion to Florida State University and all other social media users as well:
To my Facebook friends, the strangers I follow on Instagram, the strangers who follow me on Instagram and all other members of this crazy network we call social media: Reflect, my friends, when you call people out like Nicki Minaj at the VMAs for not changing their Facebook profile picture to one with a filter of the French flag. There are those who choose to act, who have chosen to give blood or donate money to the French Red Cross. That is not to say that if you have a filter on your perfectly edited selfie that you have not done your part, but it is an insult to the awesome power of social media when you claim that your filter has benefited the victims of those coordinated attacks.
I will not lie down like a journalist from The New York Times and condemn social media for making us lazy, nor apologize for the generation I have been born into. I will not claim to be a savior or act as if my charitable works have any global affect. I will not shame you for making an Instagram post about a meal you had in Lebanon one summer in order to make a statement about how terrorism made your privileged self sad. I will not yell about the oppression Olympics while pseudo-politicos demand that Black Lives Matter receive as much press as Paris the day of the most deadly attack on French soil since World War II. And lastly, I will not cry over the people who forgot to post about the anniversary of the shooting at Strozier Library.
I won’t do these things for two reasons. First, I am just as guilty as you and it took me a week to figure that out, write a Her Campus article about it and pray my editor posts it. Second, none of it matters. If I don’t use the hashtag “#FSUnited,” I don’t solve the gun control issues of this country, let alone this university. If I put a flag filter on my profile picture, ISIS isn’t going to stop. If I focus on one major world issue instead of another because Joe from my psychology class is writing about it in all caps, those problems still exist. As little as I am doing on social media, you are doing just as little to save the world. So, please, stop yelling at me in all caps.
In an effort to effectively procrastinate all research papers and major projects while attending college, most students willingly devote themselves to social media. Perhaps while devoting yourself to social media, try and be more forgiving to the people who are doing the same nothingness that you are.