Hey, you!
Yes, you with your finger poised uncertainly over the “like” button.
I see what you’re doing.
You were about to share that article, weren’t you? The one that you’ve seen floating around for a couple of days now, because it is just so cute, or validating, or brilliant, or inspiring, or consciousness-raising, or romantic, or empowering, or cathartic, or just plain hilarious. Sure, you’re a bit late to the game, but one more share can’t hurt. I mean, everyone likes it. What’s not to like?
Except. You scroll down a few inches and then you see it, linked by that incredibly hip and cutting-edge friend of yours.
The Not Okay Post. That shining beacon of light in an ocean of sheeple drones, mindlessly sharing articles without a second thought to how it might affect this particular sexual/ethnic/differently-abled minority. The lone voice intelligent and brave enough to call everyone else out on their Privilege.
You follow the link, because your hip and cutting-edge friend is always worth reading. You scan down a few lines and are suddenly filled with shock and horror at your own ignorance. Were you really just about to share that terrible, terrible article? How could you possibly have thought it was cute, or validating, or brilliant, or inspiring, or consciousness-raising, or romantic, or empowering, or cathartic, or funny at all?! That article is none of those things. And it is definitely. Not. Okay.
For a moment, you despair of your own humanity. But then you realize. You can fix this! Because, thank the powers that be, you didn’t share that article yet! By fate and serendipitous timing, you were just slow enough not to have jumped on the initial wave of likes and shares, but just fast enough to have caught the Not Okay before it takes off. By tomorrow, this will be all anyone is talking about, and you can be among the first. This is your chance to be on the Right Side of History!
You press the “share” button on the Not Okay link. And just like that, you have gone from unconcerned amusement, to horrified self-deprecation, to smug self-righteousness. All in a few seconds.
Enjoy it while it lasts. Because I am here to tell you that this behaviour is Not Okay.
Has it never occurred to you that the people who share these articles, and especially the ones who write them, are, in their zeal to denigrate every trend that goes around, simply following another trend? Beneath the caring facade, those authors are nothing more than attention-seekers, their obsession with picking out politically-incorrect details just a cheap way to rocket themselves into the spotlight on the coat-tails of a pre-existing phenomenon.
I know this to be true, because I am a Critic. And Critics, as we all know, unquestionably know the motive and intention of every author they encounter.
So next time you go to hit the share button on that Not Okay article (or, even more so, to write one yourself) please, think again. By doing so, you’re only proving yourself to be another mindless follower of another attention-seeking fad.
Instead, you should be cool, like me. I would never do something like that.
