Down the Rabbit Hole

User Generated Content - The Costs of Being Candid

This blog entry has been a long time in the making. I’ve been writing it in my head for a few days, hoping that by the time I had a chance to commit it to paper, my words and phrasing would shape as readily and clearly as they had in my mind. I can only hope because this is an issue of great importance to me and one that has affected me and my family in an unexpected and largely disappointing way.

I am an advocate of free speech. I have been writing for as long as I can remember. It has been as necessary for me as breathing at times. Aside from its personal significance to me, I have been fortunate enough to have had publication success in a few commercial markets. It is not lost on me that the genre for which I have received the most publishing credits would not exist today were it not for the First Amendment. I understand that I am able to have my successes, however humble they may be, because of those brave pioneers of the pen who committed their acts of rebellion with wet ink and courage.

Freedom of Speech is one of our most fundamentally important rights and with that right comes an immense responsibility. As much as we are free to say what we what, how we want to – it would serve the world well if we could remember that spreading messages with incendiary images, words of hate and intolerance and disingenuous political propaganda do not make us the brave, human citizens our ancestors were. Social media has provided the world with amazing opportunities to feed revolutions, inspire greatness and enact sweeping social change but it has also become a portal to mislead, miseducate and spread hate and discontent. For every person sharing a video of toddlers playing with puppies, there are three more sharing an image of evil or hate, and attributing it to one group or another. Social media allows us to be masters of our own universes, promote our talents, share our feelings and support our causes in a public, global way. It also allows for far less appealing pursuits by those who use the same freedoms to recruit, poison, corrupt, enrage and mislead.

We are social creatures, most of a drawn to want to talk about our passions. Social media gives us a vast platform to commit our two cents to just about anything we want to – that goes for everyone. So, the question I’ve been asking myself is this, should there be standards of decency applied to this medium? Should certain images and commentary be subjected to a standard of common decency or at least feature a rating system so as individuals we can decide what we chose to see, to read and to ultimately share? Is this a violation of our rights or rather the equivalent to the content rating system we subject other forms of entertainment too? I was under the impression that several of the social media sites had guides to limit potentially offensive and graphic content but as of late, I see that may not be the case.

By way of an example, the recent death of a toddler made international headlines when the refugee ship he was traveling in with his family capsized. A photographer snapped and shared an image of his lifeless body washed up on the beach. It is important to note that several major newspapers refused to publish that photo out of respect and human decency. At least one newspaper chose to publish a photo of the child delicately cradled in the arms of a rescue worker instead of the graphic images from the beach. I commend that organization’s choice. The tragedy didn’t become less so because a more respectful choice was made by those editors.

I take particular offense to the notion that as humans we need to be confronted by images or stories of atrocities to be spurn into action. As humans, are we really so desensitized to violence that we cannot act without being exposed to graphic content? I don’t need images of bodies falling from burning buildings to remember September 11th…I believe most Americans don’t either. Those poor people had families too, is it really fair to use their last moments in such a public way? Do we really believe that without those horrific images shared on social media, that we will be prone to forget the tragic events? Or that we will cease to care for and honor them as a nation? I don’t believe that for one moment. I have far more faith in us as a nation, as human beings.

I support Freedom of Speech but I believe that as a society we should remember the human costs in both attaining and supporting this important right. If each of us as individuals devoted time to really consider the content we post and share, I believe it would help to stem the tide of hate and negatively that now seems to be rapidly overtaking this medium. What if you were to ask yourself, “does this image, do these words, does this message represent my true feelings? Is this a message that I personally want to be associated with? Do I know where this image or this content is sourced from? Does that site reflect who I am? By sharing this content, am I contributing to my own passions and campaigns or fueling someone else’s agenda? And lastly, “Is sharing this image or this post going to make feel better? Is it something I would my children to see? Is this message or content making the world a safer place or feeding into political, socioeconomic rhetoric?” Test yourself. Test your own levels of human decency and tolerance first because ultimately, you can never know the struggles and hardships of others and most of us would want the same considerations from others wouldn’t we? Freedom of Speech, it is simply too important to not give it the thought, the respect and responsibility it commands of us.