PART ONE: Verbs, Instagram, and Wisdom

Sigh. This post serves as a double-edged sword for the both of us, meaning that it applies to me as much as to anyone who reads this. It will probably bite me in the rear one of these days. 

But here it goes.

A few days ago the Indonesian government limited access to social media in response to hoaxes spreading like wildfire. All throughout Facebook, Instagram, and, more potently, WhatsApp groups, claims and rumors of claims of Anti-Chinese sentiment infiltrated and polluted the people's minds. Consequently, widespread virtual hate took form and influenced thousands in a short time span. In an age of social media and the growth of individual influence and empowerment, I'm afraid that single action words can impact much more than encouraging someone to "like," "share," and "subscribe."

I may be dipping my toes in something greater than my expertise (and criticism is welcomed at this point), but when it comes to issues like these, it's where I need to take a stand. A lot of people disagree wholeheartedly with the government's actions, and, to be honest, I was one of the crowd. I protested silently and revealed my sentiment to only a few close friends. Yet, by the end of the day yesterday, I realized I was rooting for the wrong side.

I'm just going to make a generic comment and say that since social media has become available, the spread of information has never been so widespread. People are always restless in tapping away, interacting with one-time events on the internet: like, comment, subscribe, share, smash, hate, dislike, boycott, go, burn, kill, ignore. Our world is filled with one-word verbs dismissing nuanced consideration.

Here's why they can be troublesome. 

Verbs are action words. They get the stuff done, and that's why social media sites have one-word verbs such as "Like," "Share," "Comment," and "Subscribe." If we keep promoting one part of speech and not the other in equal terms, we will never get a functional sentence as the balance will be tipped from one side to the other. If all we care about is action without considering the person/place/thing/idea (subject), are we all mindless and careless in drawing our swords? 

The very fundamental definition of a sentence consists of a subject, verb, sometimes an object, and they all should make sense. Take out one of these and you have a misplaced part of speech trying to do what it’s supposed to without knowing its purpose in the first place.

For instance, if I were to magically appear wherever you are (and let’s say we’re at a restaurant) and say something, but you only heard “Eat,” then you’d eat—except the only problem is that you don’t know what you’re supposed to eat. At this point I’d presume you’d eat whatever is edible (your feelings, perhaps). But let’s say you were really invested and interested in what I had to say so you ask me to repeat my words and partially find out that I said, “Cats eat.” When you hear this, you’d stop eating, because now the verb “eat” has changed from a command to a description. By knowing the full story, you recalibrate your actions to process your input in order to churn out an output that matches the input. Same goes with social media and the overpopulation of verbs on the internet.

With the dismissal of nuanced consideration comes the question of authenticity and motivation. Glancing at the rhetoric that's been shared, tweeted, reposted, storied, etc., a lot of these actions are literally one click away. One click away from spreading hate, justice, malice, acceptance. I often times find myself blindly agreeing to an Instagram post without really figuring out knowing why I agree. I can recognize points wholeheartedly, yet it's much harder to express my point. This is why I need an online representative to do it for me. This is why there's a new career out there called "influencers." 

However, I do recognize that some actions have been considered thoroughly and shared after sleeping on it for some time, but I do want to tease out the possibility of people spreading hate just because someone told them to hit “share,” “swipe,” or any of that stuff. With the overflow of commands without cause—of action words without a purpose for an action— I fear that this can be a catalyst of catastrophic events. I’ll hash out more on that next week.