It's OK to Talk About Fun Things on the Internet

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I can confirm that I have gotten up, cleared my desk, tied my hair, and I am just starting. This is me just starting.

I've been wanting to come back to this blog for a while now but various things have been holding me back at different points between the time of May - my last post, and now. I even wrote an entire summer recap and just never hit publish. There were the usual roadblocks - things like: nobody blogs anymore anyway who cares, nobody reads my posts anyway who cares (except mom - hi mom!), I'd rather read a book, I have no post ideas, blah blah. But then there were other things like, an ongoing worldwide pandemic, societal unrest, riots, political campaigns, and things of the like. Anywhere I looked on social media, it was these things. Which is understandable - many people want to talk about what's going on in the world and advocate for their causes and things they feel passionately about. I understand that. 

The internet has just never been the place for me to do that, personally. 

So I didn't know if, given the times, I could pop into this rickety old blog and say hi and talk about how I started watching Gossip Girl for the first time, or Taylor Swift's new album, while everyone else on the internet was discussing their perceived injustices of the world. Will that make me look insensitive? I wasn't sure.

But the the other night I was cruising the Twitterverse and someone I follow tweeted out this article titled, "The Era of Influencer's Being Apolitical Online is over." I clicked it, read it, and have been thinking about it ever since. And I decided this is what I'm gonna write a blog post about.

The article argues that the era of online influencers remaining apolitical and keeping politics and current issues out of the realm of their content, is no longer acceptable. 

That, "Influencers who continue to post their usual content without acknowledging the realities of this country face the risk of appearing so laughably out of touch that it renders anything else they have to say irrelevant." 

It continues, 

"As we get closer and closer to Nov. 3, an influencer who remains silent about one of the most consequential US elections in history may risk alienating and angering their followers in such a deep way that it would be impossible to recover from."

So like I said, I have been thinking about this article ever since I read it. Some people may subscribe to this line of thinking and that's cool, but I decided that I do not. In fact, I wholeheartedly reject this line of thinking. I reject it for a few reasons.

Firstly, as a content consumer - the people I subscribe to and follow, they don't owe me their political views. They don't owe me anything. There is now somehow a sense of entitlement on our part, to the political views of our favorite athletes, actresses, and celebrities. Many people demanding they speak up and speak out. Why? This bothers me because I don't think the demand is genuine. I don't think most people are genuinely interested in what point of view their favorite Youtuber or celebrity may have - I think they're interested in making sure they hold the "correct" point of view. That they vote for the "correct" candidate. Imagine if after all these years of folks demanding Taylor Swift speak out and take a political stance, that she endorsed a Republican candidate for office? 

Secondly, the more and more politics invades our previously shared spaces, the less we have in common with each other. Sports, music, television shows, our workplaces, Goya foods, Nike...hell, the National Anthem itself - all of these things and more, no matter how big or small, have become politicized. What can we share in anymore, as Americans? What can bring us together? By requiring everyone to speak out politically and "take a side"...means everyone has now taken a side and we are by very definition - divided. Is that what we want?

And lastly, if we're constantly requiring influencers, celebrities, and athletes to comment on and speak about the latest crises of the day, then we're only ever consuming the latest crises of the day. An entire days worth of our social media feeds just politics, fear, crisis, more politics, more hysteria...day after day after day. Is that good for us? Surely not. 

Now, I am not in fact an apolitical person. I have very strong opinions about politics and the current issues of the day and I certainly have those conversations offline. But this blog, in the nine years I've had it, has never been a place for those discussions. 

I understand the immense value that the internet gives us as a tool to organize, spread awareness, create community and engage in dialogue for the causes we're passionate about, and oftentimes I have participated in some of them. I respect those who do use their platforms for these things. 

But I also think it's ok to spend time participating in the things we love, the things that we enjoy and make us happy. Take a break from the hysteria. The fear and anxiety that is in the news and your social media feeds day in and day out. I don't think it makes anyone "laughably out of touch" to want to talk about fun things on the internet. That's what I want to do. I want to get on the internet and find people who want to talk about books and Real Housewives and Harry Potter and laugh at funny dog memes and theorize about Taylor Swift lyrics. And if not, at the very least maybe find people who don't mind reading my writing about all these things. 😉

So anyway, if you made it this far - you are a champ and I thank you and I hope you want to stick around and talk about fun things because that's the plan. And I think that's ok.