If you haven't heard, an individual on Facebook made a joke event called "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All Of Us" with the goal to "Naruto run" into the government base and free any extraterrestrial beings held there.
The internet has since exploded with memes about the event scheduled for September 20 from hanging out with their new alien friends to wondering how many official government meetings have been held to discuss and explain the whole thing. However, in between all the jokes, I've seen a few people talking about how beneficial it would be to have all the people "pledging" to storm the base instead divert their energies into the problems humanity faces today. For example, I've seen a number of posts saying the massive group of people should instead focus on climate change by picking trash off beaches.
If you've followed my articles for a while, you would know that I'm big on political activism and I voice my opinion about several topics via articles, retweets, and shares. Though I'm not a fan of politics, they extend farther than just a few desks in a shiny, government building because different things directly influence people's lives. This is why you hear so many people telling you to get out there and vote. Issues like climate change are massive and need a lot of attention if they're going to be solved and improve lives.
With that being said, it's also perfectly OK to not talk about politics all the time.
The world is pretty awful right now. Negative news stories are everywhere; they tend to overwhelm people and burn them out. To recover, they turn towards things that they enjoy like books, video games, memes, and more because life shouldn't have to be so serious all the time.
It's true that numbers do wonders in terms of getting the ball rolling towards improvement in the political and global climate, but people are capable of multitasking and caring about more than just one issue and/or hobby. The memes about Area 51 are entertaining and provide a nice bit of escape from the reality that we live in. It's OK to enjoy the fluff pieces and stupid jokes in between making positive changes in the world.
