#stupid #trends
MANILA, Philippines - Atrending topic on Twitter is the physical proof of the expression, “Everyone’s talking about it.” It’s almost always the direct result of hashtags, which has forever changed the way we communicate with one another. (Sometimes to mock our overly-enthusiastic hashtag addict friends, we #talk #to #them #like #this #on #sms #or #bbm.)
For a lot of people, especially those who use Twitter as a business and marketing tool, to trend is the goal. Sometimes celebrities are asked to tweet about whatever these businesses would like to trend, to get a buzz going and I suppose, literally set the trend. Sometimes it’s just die-hard fans of a certain musician or actor, like those of Justin Bieber or even David Archuleta (especially when he was doing a local series with TV5).
In some cases, it proves to be more powerful than anyone can imagine. Many remember the “Twitter Revolution,” as it’s been dubbed, in Iran. The nation was dealing with contentious election results, and the government was steadily restricting media access. Iranians took to social media networking sites to release what they knew to be the truth.
People all over the world took notice, and so it began. There were Twitter badges that users could put on their default photos to show support, and whenever the trending topic was slipping from the top spot on the international list, people would remind each other to stay focused until a resolution had been reached. In this case, a trending topic turned a tiny voice into a massive one. A voice comprised of people all over the world who knew not just one country or belief or faith, but all of whom cried out for justice.
Still, that incident proved to be more the exception than the norm, and it seems the pulse of the millions of those on the Internet, as with most things, keeps changing. We are fast putting up walls in which our opinions, which are oftentimes unfounded or based on erroneous fact, are more important than understanding the heart of the situation. And what used to be a means to get the pulse of people across several races, nationalities, locations, and preferences simply becomes a tin can making noise.
And let me be clear, I believe in free speech, and the right of people to say whatever they want at any given time. It’s exactly what protects me when I sit up here and write almost every week, making enemies a mile a minute. It’s what protects those who write me depressingly grammatically incorrect hate mail. Neither am I saying that everything has to be earth-shatteringly profound 100 percent of the time. (God knows I’ve been told more than once, “I’ve read your work and I thought you were really eloquent. Then I read your Twitter.”) But it can’t be denied that we face the problem of having built a culture that focuses mainly on trending, on going viral, or on amassing as many likes as possible, regardless of content.
When we participate in trending things like #FatGirlProblems (as in “There’s no chicken in KFC #FatGirlProblems”), #JustinBieberRocksHarderThanJoeJonas or even the recently controversial #CharicePemengcoSexTape, we contribute a certain amount of fuel to the engine of a society gradually losing its grip on the substantial. We enable the dumbing down of those around us, and slowly paralyze the ability to talk about things that are of importance. It’s not about being deep or intense 24/7, but about having the assurance that when there is something of value that needs to be communicated, one can do so without being rendered socially awkward.
I am an advocate for understanding the power that words come with, and having the world at our fingertips not only allows us to communicate faster, but to strike the heart quicker. Like Spiderman once reminded us (or at least his Uncle Ben did), “With great power comes great responsibility.” So you’re given 140 characters, but the real question is: How do you use them?
