Essay : On Social Media Outrage

I spend an obscene amount of time on social media every week. Thirty-five hours for professional purposes and maybe six or seven hours at home. Social media are the new messiah of the internet age. They are what the internet foreshadowed for about two decades: the death of solitude. You only need a Facebook account and a smartphone to have your friends, brands, celebrities and shows just a click away, 24/7. 

It's not difficult to understand why social media had a monster success and integrated the cultural landscape: they are offering you a microcosm where you are the absolute center of attention. A universe where you are both God and Kanye West. The ruler and the center of attention both. It's a seducing promise. The countless hours I've spent observating my fellow humans on Facebook and Twitter haven't thaught me all that much, but they've taught me one important thing: never be outraged. Social media outrage is for losers and desperate people. If you're outraged about something, never ever just make a post on social media about it.

Here's the thing: social media are idiosyncratic environments. It's part of their appeal. They exist and function only within the realm they create. You can click away and get rid of them at any time and whatever is said on them, unless it has a direct effect on your life, is inconsequential. So whatever is discussed on social media is only meant FOR social media, unless it's from an outside journalistic source and whatever content is created on social media from that outside content is bound to live and die alone, on social media. Your Facebook post of political outrage doesn't matter to others when they click away from their page, just as their post of whatever outrage doesn't matter to you when you log out.

So what are the white knights of Facebook and Twitter blabbering for? Whatever you put on social media begins and ends with you. It's all about you and about nothing else. Here's a common example: I'm sure you all have this friend who posts photos of animal cruelty along with long, outraged rants that appear on your newsfeed. I know I've had several of them and blocked most of them. Unless these people work/volunteer in shelters to help animals, the message is the following: I care about animals, so I'm a good person. Love me. As a fellow Facebook user, I literally can't do anything for these poor animals. I already have a dog, I can't have two, so I'm taking good care of this one and don't plan to abandon it. Whatever you post, I already had a good idea of it, so your Facebook post only breaks my heart, so NO, you're not a good person.

The racism scandal in basketball of last Spring is another great example. This time, both celebrities and the everyman were guilty of social media outrage. Racism is bad. Most people in the 21st century won't debate that statement. So what message does it send for you to write a long Facebook rant about the unacceptability and the inescapability of contemporary racism? I am progressive-minded, so I'm a good person. Love me. There are bad things happening in the world and bad people all over. You are not gonna save anyone from it from your Facebook account. 

Jim Carrey, probably typing an ulcerated rant about something.

One thing Facebook and Twitter do well is to inform people. It's a good thing. Brands, Blogs and web sites share tons of contents every day that aim to inform and improve the users' lives. The reading part is good. The spreading misinformation is pretty bad, though. There is a decent chance that if you're reading something infuriating on social media, it comes from a dubious source and is a half-truth at best. I understand that there is a new way to report information now (especially on Twitter), but there was a way to do things that worked perfectly fine before and it would be stupid to give it up for outrageous headlines, click bait and giving people something to angrily shake their fist about. So whatever your political/social qualm is, how about you keep reading and fact check and keep your opinion for real life conversations where people can't hide behind a keyboard to call you names or click away from their social media platform of choice?

Here is one of the greatest secrets of the internet age: that long, virulent and inspired rant you're passionately typing on your Facebook account has very little purpose beyond your own self-validation. Your outrage is not going to help anybody. It's not going to help anybody if it's shared a thousand times, because all people need to do to get away from it is to click away from Facebook.You best bet is to get your ass off that computer chair and put your money where your mouth is? You don't like the government? Don't argue with their supporters, but go promote the ideas your support instead. You can't tolerate pedophiles or sexual offenders? Find, get involved with PROTECT or RAINN. Become a source of information, because your personal outrage doesn't qualify for a source in itself.

I'm aware of the irony of being outraged about social media outrage from behind my computer chair, thank you. The point I'm trying to make is that social media were first created as a mean of entertainment and social connection. They have evolved into a personal hub that allows you to keep connected with the world and it's fine. It's just important to define the limits of their influence on your life. Whatever you do on Facebook or Twitter doesn't make you a good or a bad person. It just makes you a normal person of the 21st century. They are a world within themselves, but they don't define who you are. Your concrete actions away from social media, how you decide to spend your OWN TIME define who you are. So please, save us the outrage and make your life awesome instead.