…and do you think that you posting it has a positive, neutral or negative effect on the world?
By content I mean what ever you’re posting online. The pictures you post on Instagram/Pixelfed or messages you’re writing on Lemmy, YouTube comment section, Facebook and so on.
If you look back at what you have posted in the past year for example, do you consider it to be the kind of content that you would gladly consume if it was coming from someone else? If not, then why are you posting it in the first place?
What made me think about this is my girlfriend, who is quite vocal about the harms social media can have on the mental health of young girls, especially when influencers post heavily edited photos of themselves and their lives, which for the most part are fake.
However, she’s active on social media as well, and being quite an attractive woman, she seems oblivious to what I consider a factual statement: her own content is also causing the same kind of concerns for other women who are not as genetically blessed as she is. What she’s posting is not fake, but it is heavily curated nonetheless. She obviously knows this herself, but do her followers?
I don’t personally follow her social media, but I’d be willing to bet she hasn’t posted about being sick for a week and not taking a shower for four days. I don’t mean that as a criticism per se, but I think it highlights how little we think about the effect our own content has on others while still being quick to judge others for what they post.
“She’s hot, but really ought to keep it on the DL for me to enjoy and no one else to see because think of the children”.
What a weird little humble brag while also putting down your girlfriend and blaming her for broader society’s behavior. If she’s not lying, advocating for unhealthy habits or trends, encouraging parasocial relationships, or spreading misinformation, she’s not the problem.
What’s up with the quotation marks when you just came up with that “quote” yourself? I don’t feel the need to defend views I don’t hold.
But if you don’t thoughtfully respond to every strawman, then the internet WINS!
Now what were we talking about? Something about how content impacts us or what?
If you look at the Trump candidacy and things like qanon, it’d be hard to argue that the internet isn’t making inroads. My generation let this go on for long enough, it’s not about the lulz anymore. Lots of people are getting hurt, and it can still get worse.
I hope that’s not the only lens you see the world through. I don’t think anybody else saw that comment the way you did.
Multiple upvotes on my comment indicates I’m not the only one tired of Boomer “shit on my partner” humor.