How does one go about creating a "National ___________ Day"? I'm asking for a friend. That friend is me.
The day I'd like to see? National No Memes or Snark on Social Media Day. I'm curious what that would look like. And what it might spark in us.
Any of you that know me or still actually follow me, know I don't think social media should be just babies, good food and fun trips (although it should definitely include that). I do think it should be about engagement on important issues. Whether we like it or not, for good or for evil, social media isn't going anywhere. At least for the foreseeable future, here we are. For those of us who choose to participate in it, it should be a reflection of who we actually are in the real world, not just the dressed up version we sometimes tend to show in this space. I want to see this as a platform to begin to know people, beyond their best, idealized selves. It certainly needs to be more than Facebook, it needs to go deeper than our feeds, into real life spaces, but if we're intentional, it can begin here. I want to learn new things here. I want to know what you're reading, who you're learning new things from. I want to grow and I love when one of you shares a perspective I've never considered and challenges me in that growth. I want to know how you navigated hard things, where you failed and what you learned from it, where you succeeded and what you learned from that. Aaaaand babies, food and fun trips.
But, what I do not think it should be:
- snark,
- memes that try to encapsulate things we hold dear into 15 words or less (or more often and with more pain to others, things we despise encapsulated into 15 words or less),
- hateful responses on others' pages,
- characterizing "the other" as functioning with diabolical, evil intent at all times,
- name-calling,
- reducing people to their opinions on one or two issues,
- de-humanizing language,
- linking articles that do any of the above things
I'll be the first to raise my hand and admit that one of my spiritual gifts may very well be sarcasm. I love a good, quippy, sarcastic meme - and sometimes, if they're done well, even those that I fundamentally disagree with. I often will literally laugh out loud when reading them.
BUT...
So many posts these days are crafted intentionally to minimize others, to de-humanize, to separate and divide. I see people talk about all the ways they hate the division in our country and on social media, yet then post things like this - that will, as their goal, perpetuate and widen the divide. They shut down conversation, rather than invite it. They hurt rather than heal. They force our opponent into the opposing corner to shore up and come at us even harder.
One of the things I've tried to challenge myself with since stepping back into Facebook is to avoid memes, to avoid sarcastic responses that encourage us vs. them. It's hard sometimes. I'll be honest, sometimes I feel like people "deserve" the lash of my sarcastic tongue - they've earned it. Sometimes I just think it's funny. But then I try to think - even if it is funny, how will it be received by some one on an opposing side of this discussion? Will it encourage engagement or division? I want to encourage engagement. No one changes, no divides are healed, by being shamed.
If you're a meme spreader, if you share the gift of sarcasm along with me, if you're just really angry with a lot of really frustrating people right now and you'd like to let that all spew,...if you're any of those things, I'd like to encourage you to pick a few days in a row and just choose to not. Choose to use a few more words and explain yourself, ask good questions and listen fully to the answers - then ask some more good questions. Let's see if it sparks a new way of engaging in some of us.
