Once upon a time, I was a really active member of the blogging site Tumblr, and on Tumblr, one of the phrases you’ll hear a lot is “callout culture.” Callout culture described the way that supposedly “toxic” bloggers were exposed; it was a process that usually started with a blogger making a hateful or inflammatory post, and ended with a very public calling-out of the blogger, generally resulting in a lot of foul language and bullying which often culminated in the blogger actually deleting the content and deactivating their blog.

It wasn’t a pretty process, and as much as I disagreed with the statements that were originally made, I think that “callout culture” is incredibly toxic, and isn’t the way to deal with someone you disagree with. So, in short, I’m not here to call anyone out; in fact, I haven’t just seen the hate I’m about to describe on social media. I’ve seen it everywhere, in a lot of really unexpected places. Recently, I’ve been awoken to the sad fact that, despite going to a forward-thinking, modern university, I still live in the South, and living here comes with a certain brand of prejudice that isn’t entirely unique to the South, but is absolutely characteristic of it. And honestly, I’m not expecting anything to change just because I wrote a letter, but if one person, just one, reads this and decides to reevaluate, I’ll consider it a success.

I have two requests: stop blindly posting misinformation, and please, please stop playing “pain Olympics” (see below).

Facebook is riddled with misinformation. That’s just the nature of Facebook. Remember last week when the fake story about Megyn Kelly was actually a trending topic on Facebook? In general, I’m not a huge fan of Facebook as a primary news source. If nothing else, at least verify what you’re posting with another source before you blindly share or make your post.

So much of the hate that I’ve seen being spread on Facebook is largely a result of made-up statistics, skewed history (which, as a history buff, makes me cringe), and even doctored photos. Has anyone seen that picture floating around with Hillary Clinton shaking hands with Osama bin Laden? Or the one supposedly depicting her in Blackface? Yeah, definitely never happened - a quick trip to snopes.com (or even just a google search, honestly) proved both were absolutely fake. I mean, I definitely don’t love Hillary Clinton, but I’m fairly sure anyone with close ties to bin Laden, or someone who had done something as offensive as dressing in Blackface, wouldn’t have gotten this far up the political ladder. No matter how corrupt you think politics are, American politics aren’t like that. Anthony Weiner, notorious sexter and ousted Congressman, is under investigation from Child Services, and isn’t in Congress anymore. Do you really think Hillary Clinton would be capable of running for president if she had ties to bin Laden, an offense arguably far worse than sexting? You might’ve also seen posts about Donald Trump dropping out of the race due to a brain tumor (false), or that he doesn’t salute the flag during the National Anthem (false), and even that he has called Republicans the “dumbest group of voters” (false!) If you know me, you know I have a pretty supreme dislike of Donald Trump, but at least I don’t believe all the news I see about him, and you shouldn’t either. Look, all I’m saying is that if you’re going to post something that’s probably questionable, at least do a little research first. Otherwise, you just risk looking pretty darn silly, and what’s worse, you spread false information that reaches more people than you’d think.

For those of you who haven’t heard of “pain Olympics,” you still likely are familiar with the sentiment. Basically, it’s defined as the kind of posts like, “_________ has it worse than ________,” or, “you have no right to be sad/upset/hurt, because someone has it worse than you. Look, I’ve learned a lot since being here at school, but one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is that comparison leads to hatred. Do me a favor, and stop comparing someone’s struggles to your own. Yes, there will always be someone who has it worse than you, but your struggle is unique, it’s yours, and you alone know what it’s like. In short, everyone has the right to be hurting. Everyone has the right to their own suffering. One of the most dangerous things one can do is to compare their suffering to someone else’s, because no matter how badly someone else is suffering, you cannot neglect your own. Don’t let someone tell you to “stop being sad, be grateful” because you have it better than someone else, and don’t spread that sentiment to others either. I see this so often, particularly on Facebook, and all it does is spread negativity and make everyone involved feel bad. How about instead of bringing someone down because you think their suffering isn’t significant, you try to help? Don’t you think the world has enough hate?

If you’ve read all the way through, I only have one more thing to say. Just do me one more favor - next time you’re on Facebook, take a big, deep breath before you post. Think about your impact. You reach many, many more people than you’d think, and if just one less hateful post makes it onto someone’s news feed, the world gets better, even if it’s just marginally. Every little bit counts.

Kind regards,

I Just Wanted To Look At Cat Videos :(