How has the rate of police brutality been over this past year? How is Sandy Hook Elementary recovering? What are their new policies? Are the people of Paris okay now? Are gay people still oppressed? What about cyberbullying-is that still a thing? Are people still committing suicide over it?

Most Americans probably do not know the answers to any of these questions in regards to 2015/2016. What all these rhetorical questions have in common is that they address social issues: social issues that people once cared about- well cared about is too strong...these were issues that people acknowledged but then stopped acknowledging after a few days. To the general United States public, these issues were nothing more than trends.

A trend is defined as “the subject of many posts on a social media website within a short period of time.” Police brutality towards African Americans has been constant for over half of a century, but it was only so recently recognized to the public when Trayvon Martin was killed. People reached a new level of being fed up with institutionalized racism when Zimmerman (Trayvon’s killer) was released as not guilty claiming it was “self defense” though the man had at least one hundred pounds on Trayvon, and Trayvon had no weapons to fight with. Suffice it to say, the grounds were not equal and it is very clear that the justice system screwed up (per usual.) To most Americans, this was the first case of racial injustice towards African Americans, and lots of Americans wanted to get on board by helping to ‘make a difference.’ As more publicized cases surfaced such as Michael Brown and Eric Garner’s death, white people tweeted, instagrammed, and facebooked away; they serial hashtagged “#HandsUpDontShoot, #Icanbreathe/#Icantbreathe, #BlackLivesMatter.” It is amazing if people want to get on board for eliminating racism in this country, but the thing is a lot of white Americans don’t. They use these things as a filler, or simply as a way to not feel left out- #FOMO. Did they really think that captioning ONE selfie with #handsupdontshoot was going to accomplish anything? Did they think that a police officer would see the photo and reevaluate himself? Or did they just want to further their own self image by seeming racially tolerant or politically aware? I have seen COUNTLESS one hit wonder photos of just one small hashtag. If one of these serial captioners really wanted to be an ally to the black community they would probably do some research and realize that this has been going on for a long time- the three recognized cases are not the only times that racial injustice has been served in our utopian ‘post racial’ America. If these captioners really did understand that, then they would understand that one post is not going to make a difference because this continues to happen, even after the Mike Brown case. The people who really do make a difference with the Black Lives Matter movement on social media are the ones who continue to post about it, recognizing that this is STILL an issue and will continue to be until everyone recognizes this. The people who work on organizing protests, or even smaller, just the people who work to evaluate their own unconscious (or possibly conscious) racism are the ones who are better allies. The people who educate themselves on the history of African Americans in the United States (since history class sometimes likes to gas light over a lot of the significant stuff). The people who recognize their privilege- these are allies. The people who take part in the serious and sensitive discussions of race even though they are afraid of saying the wrong thing but are ready to address it- these are allies. Serial captioners just aren’t.

Trends can come in the form of pretty much any type of superficiality. Four years ago, a twenty year old man (Adam Lanza) shot and killed 26 people (mostly between the age of six and seven years old) at Sandy Hook elementary school. Families bereaved, classes cancelled, a school in a state of shock- some teenage girls though thought they came up with the perfect way to show their respect: “Draw a purple infinity sign on your wrist to show that you care about the Sandy Hook massacre.” This was a post that was trending on social media for a while to get as many people as possible to draw a purple infinity on their wrists. This trend just astounded me because I could not see the connection at all. First of all, the school color of Sandy Hook is not even purple, so just stop. Second of all, wrist infinity signs are one of the most common tattoos that girls have. I honestly doubt that all the people with infinity sign tattoos got it to honor the Sandy Hook massacre- no they probably got it because they think it’s cute- that is completely fine. What is not fine is that in 2012, middle school and high school girls (who obviously were not at a legal age to get a real tattoo) were drawing temporary tattoos on their wrists to be cute, pretending that it was to honor the massacre. Girls only drew it on their wrists because a lot of girls love the idea of small cute tattoos- if the trend was to write ‘Restrict Arms’ or ‘Gun Control’ in big black letters on your hand, do you think those thirteen year old girls would do it? Probably not. Why? It is not as cute.

Off of the topic of being ‘cute,’ the idea that changing your profile picture FILTER needs to change. June 26- the day that gay marriage was legalized or more notably, the day that half of Americans (the liberals at least) added a rainbow filter to their facebook profile pictures in order to #CelebratePride. This was more of a fun thing and a celebration rather than the recognition of a social issue- the rainbow filter was pretty effective in spreading the news that gay marriage was legalized (since no one really watches the news). The problem that I have with this is once again, turning it into a trend. A lot of the straight people who changed their profile pictures were probably trying to prove that they were not homophobic OR to emphasize that the fight is over and that ‘Love Wins.’ I hate to be a pessimist, but the fight is far from over. As Macklemore says “A certificate on paper isn’t gonna solve it all, but it’s a damn good place to start.” Unfortunately a lot of discrimination happens in a grey area- an area that the law does not necessarily create, but also not necessarily stop. Homophobia did not just sink into the gutters on June 26 and everyone needs to continue fighting for equality and being an ally, more than just changing a picture.

The last trend that I will be addressing holds a special place of hatred in my heart and it is the “#DontJudgeMe” tag. This tag was created in response to a youtube video that an account (@MyPaleSkin) created to share her cyberbullying experience. The woman in the video (Em Ford) starts the video off with a fresh naked face. She is smiling but then starts flashing comments that she got on an Instagram photo when she shared a no makeup selfie. Comments such as “Seriously has she ever washed her face?”

“Ew/Gross/Disgusting,” “Ugly as F***,” “Revolting,” and as the title of the video spoils: “You Look Disgusting” pop on the screen. Then she puts on makeup and smiles when positive comments surface- but of course trolls will always be trolls; commenters start attacking her use of makeup to hide acne saying “This is false advertising” and “imagine waking up next to her.” And then the Don’t Judge Me challenge was created. (Why does everything have to be a challenge? Why does everything need to be a game?) The challenge comes from vine and the ‘challenge’ is for one to start off with a drawn on unibrow and drawn on cystic acne. Other optional features include messy hair and untrending outfits. Then the challenger puts their hand on the camera and when they remove their hand they reveal their self. When they reveal themselves without the unibrow and acne, they will play with their hair, give a condescending smile, and then tilt their head. There are so many things wrong with this challenge. First of all, the whole message of this challenge contradicts what MyPaleSkin was trying to achieve! Em Ford was trying to emphasize that you are beautiful with or without makeup, acne or clear skin- it does not matter. What these viners were doing, however, was emphasizing that you should not judge an ‘ugly person’ (one with acne and a unibrow) because they could super ‘hot’ without the acne and unibrow. Second of all, everyone doing this challenge is definitely not insecure and they are trying to show off how conventionally beautiful they are-- people in the comments stated how this challenge made them even MORE insecure. How the challenge SHOULD have played out is: Viner starts off with makeup or looking conventional and then removes it to reveal their natural skin to promote confidence. Unfortunately this was not the case, and teenagers used the name of cyberbullying in order to show themselves off.

If one really did care about Sandy Hook, maybe they would donate to the fundraiser that wanted to give to the families so they could take off work and grieve. Maybe they would research gun control and take a stand. We can’t just wait for issues to become popular in order to care about them temporarily. Obviously it is impossible to become involved with every issue that surfaces on the news, but unless you are going to become involved with the issue and actually have a commitment to ally with it in the long run, don’t use the hashtags, filters, or whatever else to further your own self image. It is not fair to these causes that affect millions of people.