From The Heart

I'm aware that my news feed and social media feed has pretty much revolved around a single subject over the last few days and I am not going to apologise for that. The events in Orlando have really hit me and made me take a long hard think about myself and my part within the LGBTQ community and the community around the world. It may get repetitive or too much for some to bear even, but it is my outlet. In the days following the horrific tragedy at the Pulse Nightclub, I found myself totally helpless beyond offering words of support on social media. 

Each of us can only react within the confines of the outlets they have at their disposal. Status updates, post sharing and conversation on Facebook and Twitter may not mean a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it is the only outlet I have to share my thoughts and feelings right now (which is pretty much the whole point of these social media platforms isn't it?). It may be the only outlet I have right now, but because of the way it has affected me, I feel incredibly passionate about it. That passion gets driven into sharing every post that strikes a chord, commenting and contributing my opinion to discussion wherever appropriate. It's no different from those who share lots of football-related discussions. It's not my interest but I don't begrudge them their right to show their feelings. The feelings of helplessness are horrible because I wanted and still want nothing more than to help. Whether it's joining the discussion of how to prevent future atrocities or something bigger I don't know but I want to feel that I have done more than 'just' share my thoughts on social media. I have no time to entertain the question of 'What can you possibly do' because something is better than nothing at all surely? That is why I am now seeking out more ways to get involved in our community. It's never too late and all of that!

Detractors will say - 'everyone will have forgotten about this in a few weeks' and I'm well aware of that. I've seen the statistics that show how long conversation about subjects lasts within social media and after these sort of events, the timeline is around two months. After that, the conversation dies down and we have all moved on with our lives - or worse, the latest tragedy. This is part of the problem, we are all aware of the fact the conversation dwindles but no one seeks to prevent it. In order to effect change we have to keep raising the subject, keep pushing for answers and ultimately fighting to achieve the desired outcome. The reason the conversation becomes just a memory is that we allow it to be so. 

If the stream of status updates, memes, videos et al bothers you well I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry!

CONVERSATION

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