Walk That Talk

We are often too happy (or should I say trigger-happy) to scrutinise each other’s social media postings because it’s so hard to influence the actual things themselves. Global capitalism, the extremist religious groups, the far right, patriarchal power, sexual minorities, gender equality and environmental destruction are themes we often face powerlessness with. And merely commenting on them can never solve the problems themselves.

Now, because it is so difficult to influence the big themes, we as individuals feel the need to focus on closer and smaller issues. And because of this, we end up easily demarcating and controlling how others talk about these themes.

Our endless demands are usually targeted at people we know are already listening to us. Thus, the same people who are sensitive to the issues and even willing to help are most stressed about whether they can steer themselves in the jungle of different demands and talk about the subject in a “correct” way, and the meaning of the message itself often disappears or at least is heavily watered down.

Simultaneously, we hope that everyone would be talking about x-theme, but we also want to set the rules for this conversation. This contradiction causes that the talk on these big themes is surrounded by a constant feeling of insecurity and inadequacy, where one can never provide just the right kind of exposure to a subject that should - regardless - be talked about.

Recognising your own feeling of powerlessness can be important. But instead of only setting demands on our immediate social media environments, we should consider how the sense of power could be increased through our own actions. We should try to strengthen our ability to change things ourselves, beyond the mere level of postings and our own circle of comrades, and take concrete action.

(This post is of course a paradox in itself, but I am hoping that it inspires you to think, and eventually do something about it. And may the picture help you with the understanding of it all. Thank you.)