If you are someone who has the French flag infused over your profile picture, you probably opened this article curious as to why I'm so pessimistic and why I think supporting Paris in this way is just a foolish trend.
If you are someone who has stubbornly resisted the French flag profile picture trend, you probably opened this article hoping to reassure yourself that your decision is rational.
Both of you are wrong.
Very early Saturday morning, Facebook launched the ability for users to "Change your profile picture to support France and the people of Paris." Clicking the "Try it" button allowed users to put a semi-transparent image of the french flag over their current profile picture or another photo if desired. If you are a Facebook user, you undoubtedly saw hundreds of these profile pictures all over your Newsfeed, and you undoubtedly saw many that remained unchanged.
So what's the right opinion to have?
Image courtesy of Tom Koene (Zuma Press).
As soon as I heard about the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday, this question immediately came to my mind:
What can a 20-year-old woman in Kansas really do to make a difference in this situation?
For 12 hours on Saturday, I joined the trend and changed my profile picture to a French flag. I believed that although this action would have no direct impact on the tragedy happening on what seemed like the other side of the world, I was a part of something bigger. I believed that I was a part of a movement that was showing Paris that we were on their side. And I was. Even if they never saw it, I felt like this was my way of being like the woman in the picture above from the Charlie Hebdo protests in January. My profile picture was my sign to the world that I am "NOT AFRAID."
If you read the title of this article, you're probably wondering why I changed my profile picture to no longer be the French flag, especially if I believed all these positive things about it.
Here's why:
I started doing my research and found lists of dozens of countries who have had major ISIS attacks and arrests take place within their borders during the past 12 months, and that's when it clicked.
Paris needs our support. There is no arguing this truth. Changing our profile pictures to the French flag is an incredible way to join them in showing ISIS that we are "NOT AFRAID." But the truth is, the whole world needs our support in this fight.
Just one day before the attack in Paris, ISIS suicide bombers killed at least 43 people in the capital of Lebanon. Earlier this month, ISIS suicide bombers killed 4 police officers in Egypt. The list goes on and on and on. Do these attacks undermine the atrocity that happened in Paris? Not one bit. Am I suggesting that we should not support Paris as we have been? Absolutely not.
What I'm suggesting is that you join me in supporting the dozens of other countries who have had to mourn and swallow their fear in the face of ISIS.
How to change your profile picture to multiple flags:
The video above visually shows how to complete these steps. See below if you get confused!
1. Save the image above by dragging to your desktop or by using right-click + "save image as."
2. Make sure the profile picture you want to use is saved to your computer. Make sure the image is a square.
3. Open Pixlr Editor in your web browser.
4. Select "Open Image From Computer" and open your desired profile picture.
5. Click the "Image" tab on the toolbar and select "Image size."
6. Resize your image to 2000 x 2000 pixels.
7. Click the "Layer" tab on the toolbar, select "Open image as layer," and open the flag image.
8. Find the "Layers" box on the right-hand side of the screen. Click the "Toggle layer settings" button in the lower left-hand corner of this box (it looks like a small white box with two black lines across it).
9. Adjust the opacity on the slider to somewhere between 25-35%, depending on your preference.
10. Click the "File" tab on the toolbar and select "Save."
These flags are just a portion of those who have been affected by the terrorism of ISIS. If there are other flags you believe need to be seen, I encourage you to make your own image to put on your profile picture using these steps.
Join me in showing the whole world that we are NOT AFRAID.
