The other day, I was sitting in my room scrolling through my twitter timeline (Yet again, such a millennial) and I saw a quote that aggravated me to say the very least; here it is below
Now, this quote is obviously something that many people relate and agree with; considering that it has been retweeted (or “shared” for all of my non-Twitter users) over 2,000 times. Truth be told, I agree with this quote and think it was very true; but let me explain (or rant) about my frustration with this quote.
I often feel like the term “society” is misused within our world (especially within my generation). Whenever something goes wrong in our world (mostly with social rights and things pertaining to equality) we “blame society.” Anytime we feel wrongfully labeled or stereotyped, we “blame society” Anytime we are judged or get our feelings hurt, we “blame society.” But my question is, who do we think society consists of?
I feel like many people think society is this small group of horrible human beings that sit in a basement in a secret location and make rules on how we treat each other. Well friends, I am here to tell you that there is no such thing.
Here is the actual definition of the word “society”...
In other words, society is you and me.
Society is your mom, your professors, your boss, your best friend, the cashier at Target, the janitor at your school, the UPS guy, Beyonce, the guy that voices SpongeBob… WE ARE ALL SOCIETY.
So riddle me this; if we are society, then why do we blame society but refuse to take self-responsibility? I mean...If we are society, you do realize you are actually blaming yourself right?
I know.. mind-blowing isn’t it
You see, my issue with “society” is we are great at seeing an issue, pointing a finger, and even voicing what we feel should be done to fix the issue; but we are not the change we wish to see in the world. We are blamers and hypocrites who are too lazy and stubborn to make a difference. We blame media, blame racism, blame politics, and just blame until we can’t blame anymore. But everything we blame, we indulge in. We are also great for being, what I like to call, “social media gangsters” we voice our opinions in 140 characters on Twitter or in a status on Facebook, but we don’t practice what we preach in normal, day-to-day life.
There are plenty of people on a national day for “Spread the Word to End the Word” (a campaign to end the word “retarded” and other hurtful words towards those with learning disabilities) who write long and heartfelt Facebook post telling people to not make fun of those with disabilities, yet these are the same people who use the word “retarded” as a joke every day (knowing that it is wrong).
How about the teenagers who tweeted hashtags about ending violence after a teenager was killed in a fight at school but go choose to provoke fights, film them, and post them all over the internet?
How about those people who complained about the recent election all over the internet (for the ENTIRE campaign season), yet decided they were not going to vote…
You see what I am saying? It’s always popular for people to complain every time something horrible happens within our world, but what are people really doing to change that? For a good percentage of “society”, the answer to that question is nothing.
Here is my challenge to "society," stop blaming and make change happen. And when you decide to blame “society”, realize that you are blaming yourself and not a fictitious idea that is supposed to be used as a scapegoat for OUR issues that WE cause. How about when we see an issue within our world, we attempt to fix it by our actions every day. How about we begin treating others how we want to be treated. How about we practice what we preach. How about we start taking more responsibility for what we cause in our world instead of only blaming.
