American in Spain

Social Networking Causes

February 10, 2011
Facebook Exclamation

Rant alert! I'm really sick and tired of seeing "[Your Name] likes I'm against children getting cancer and dying painful deaths on Causes" on Facebook. Really? You really thought that you needed to share that with me? Thereby implying that if I don't click "like", that I am, indeed, in favor of childhood cancer, or domestic violence, or female genital mutilation, or rapists, or serial killers, or autism, or cerebral palsy, or pedophiles, etc. Good freakin' grief, people! What good does it do to post that you are in favor of a morally unambiguous "cause" on a social network? What? Tell me!

And another thing...while I'm on my high horse... What the hell good does it do to change your avatar "in solidarity" with a cause? Remember the Iranian election protests? Everybody and their brother changed their Twitter avatar to have a green tint to it "in support of the cause". What a great "I'm in favor of what you're doing, but I'm too lazy, lame, and/or selfish to do anything more than tint my avatar" message to send to people in dire need of political and economic support!

Green 4 Iran Mocking

And then less than a fortnight later...

Green 4 Iran Mocking

If only the poor Egyptians of 2011 had chosen a color...

C'mon people. If you really care, give to a charity or to the actual cause you support. Otherwise I don't want to hear your "I'm totally lame, but holier than thou" crap.

Whew! I feel better.