Internet Crusades and their Crusaders

I can only imagine that someday ads will be forcefully beamed directly into our brains like they show in the cartoon Futurama.  You can’t escape ads for products and information no matter where you turn your head or hear just about every moment of everyday.  Through radio, billboards, print, T.V., internet banners and so much more.  It’s terribly difficult to escape it.  Sometimes these ads are for raising awareness of problems in the world at large.

Since I have actually joined these social networks (as much as I was reluctant to do so), I’ve noticed something.  That these are mainly places for people to share, reshare, retweet, repost, over and over and over again; images, messages and blurbs that they think will raise awareness to stop hatred, homophobia, neglect, abuse, racism, global warming, obama care, hunger, obesity, pedophilia, war, disease, illiteracy, immigration, poverty, piracy, violence, slavery and more.  It’s as if they are on some sort of crusade to help the world.  The same things I’ve heard and seen about since I was a kid in school.  I’m also pretty sure that all these people have seen and heard this stuff too.  These have been issues for years and years.  So, I can’t imagine anyone over the age of 20 who isn’t already aware of the worlds problems.

Which makes me wonder why people feel the need to constantly post and repost the same things over and over.  Everyone I know, knows about these issues, and have for a long time.  Does it really help?  Does a person who is guilty of a hate crime, or abuse or homophobia or whatever issue, see these posts and suddenly realize the errors of their ways?  Somehow I sincerely doubt it.  I don’t see a bully suddenly seeing he or she has been saved.  Or that they need to seek out help.  More off, I see him or her making a new target because they got annoyed with the post.

As it is, I don’t have huge friends lists on any of these social networks, as I don’t see the purpose of adding every Tom, Dick and Harry just so I can claim to have 2000 friends.   Which means I know most of these people for real.  I don’t recall having conversations with them on the phone or in person about these things.  Well, maybe piracy as I work for an ISP, so it’s a common topic of which my life is a part of.  Most all of them are like me, and have rent to pay and food to put on the table.  Or in some cases, what to wear to school the next day or what person to fall in love with.  None of the people that I know, are in any real position to stop hunger, or to shutdown piracy, or keep someone from being abused.  We have far more important real life issues we need to concern ourselves with.

So when these “crusaders” push that share button, does it somehow save someone?  Or does it just make themselves feel better by letting others know that all these issues they are somehow concerned with.  Perhaps it does.  It doesn’t do it for me.  If I wanted to feel better about stopping something wrong, I would want to take a larger part in helping for real.  Not by clicking a share button with my mouse and then continue watching the latest fail series of videos on YouTube.

Because if all I’m going to see on Google+, Facebook and Twitter is ads to stop every issue in the planet… Then why would I want to bother using them?  From my point of view, it’s just more ads.  The only difference is, the people posting them aren’t making any money for them.