Social Media Sharing That Needs To Stop

Jan Risher -

Short rant:
I love my daughters. I know what a picture of a hand-crank ice cream maker looks like. I recognize an old-fashioned ice tray. I remember all the characters on Mayberry — Andy, Barney, Gomer and Opie. Yes, my mother also had the Tupperware white plastic tall “P” and “S” salt and pepper shakers. No, I don’t support cruelty to animals in any shape or form. And finally, I don't feel the need to hit "like" or "share" to confirm my spirituality or belief system. I just don’t get it.

Chance are, if you’re on Facebook or other social media, you’ve seen these too — the small poster like images that say “Share this if you can identify the picture below,” or “Like if you love your daughter.” In my opinion, the practice has peaked, and I hope it’s on the downhill stretch and fades into quick history. It’s out of control. Each of the images mentioned in the previous paragraph showed up my Facebook news feed within a 90-minute period over the weekend. I just don’t get it.

What’s with all these images and sayings on Facebook and other social media that vary from what I suppose is intended to be funny, inspirational or simply prove your age? You know the ones — the ones that encourage people to propel near-meaningless images again and again? I just don’t get it.

Sure, there’s freedom of speech. People get to say, like or share whatever they want; I can turn it off or stop using the media. However, I just can’t figure out why so many feel the need to share these canned images. They’re basically meaningless. Who dreams them up? And why? Is it about saying, “Hey, I’m alive,” or “Hey, we both watched Mayberry as kids,” or is it something else?

I don’t mean to cast aspersions. Nope, I’m genuinely trying to figure it out. But the long and short of the situation is that I just don’t get it.