By: Alexis Stallard, Staff Writer
The Year of the Tiger is upon us and so are the expectations of a new year. Resolutions have been made and most will be broken before the month of January is over. Some, like myself, do not bother making any at all most years.
But I have a small resolution that I think everyone should try making this year.
Be a better human.
While I am a firm believer in the mantra “life’s tough, get a helmet,” I find that lately, humans are pretty adamant about purposely making life tough for others. I find it most noticeably on social media. That initial quarantine in the spring of 2020 kept us indoors, and social media quickly became the new place for everyone to gather. Incidentally, it is also the perfect place for people to hide behind screens and be ruthless to others. No matter the platform, no matter the content, the trend of shaming others is a prevalent one.
The beginning of December always signifies the arrival of the yuletide spirit but also the heavily anticipated “Spotify Wrapped.” Every year, Spotify compiles a thorough list of your top artists, genres, and other interesting tidbits about how you listened to music and podcasts for the year. I love getting mine because it feels nice to reflect on the person I was for the year all based on what songs I screamed most in the car. However, this year, Twitter was overrun with the raging war over whether “To Share Or Not To Share” one’s Spotify Wrapped. Many people love sharing theirs, but many were vocal about how they did not care about them and wished people would not post them. I admit that I posted mine with minimal shame. How could I be expected to not brag about being in the top 0.05% of all Taylor Swift listeners?
Regardless of what camp you find yourself in, the question is this: Why care so much about something so inconsequential? Social media is a vast beast, and the goal is for people to share things, whether 10 people or 10,000 people care about it.
Sharing things most people will never care about is literally what social media is all about. Sure, some things are definitely better left in the drafts, and some people need to learn what is appropriate to be posted. But, when it comes to inconsequential things, like a Spotify Wrapped, just get over yourself. Stop tearing other people down for stuff that does not even matter. You might not care about my top genre for the year, but I also might not care about you getting into your dream sorority. That is just how the world works, but I am not going to shame you for posting it.
So, if you see something you find annoying on social media, keep scrolling and keep your thoughts to yourself. Ironically enough, you’ll find that no one really cares.
PHOTO: Unsplash
