It was a Saturday morning, missy was in bed and hubby was taking a nap after a big night. I had a rare moment to myself, forgoing my instinct to take this time to clean the bathroom, instead enjoying some one-on-one time with my mobile phone and my facebook feed. I scrolled through the usual images of babies laughing, cats in hats and moving-house pictures, before coming across a picture of Syrian refugees. The picture was of small children fleeing their war-torn country in search of a better life. Being a mother (and, well, human!) I gravitated toward the faces, assuming I would find a link to an in-depth news item on the crisis in Syria. Instead, the words “if you don’t like this you’re a terrorist” were plastered on the image. I recoiled.
Seriously? This is where we’re at? Trivialising terrorism? To continue the fear-mongering by implying that anyone who didn’t “like” what is arguably an insipid post is a terrorist? I didn’t like it, and I have nothing but compassion for refugees. I believe we should open our borders to anyone who has to flee their country for their own safety. In fact, I don’t believe in borders at all. The more the merrier! But none of that is going to make me like that post.
It’s one of many guilt-tripping memes I have come across. So many of these “if you don’t like this then you have no soul, want everyone to die and drown kittens in your spare time” memes are doing the rounds, meant to make us feel like monsters if we don’t “like” what is essentially a form of click-bait. And I’m not having it. I’m not buying. I could go on about how true journalism is being lost in the masses of crap we have to wade through in our daily feeds, I could make some judgements about those producing these memes. Instead, I say “enough”. We, as readers, as consumers, have the power to stop these feeds, designed to make us feel like satan, by not clicking. So, let’s start a motion. I was tempted to start a hashtag, but that just makes me one of them. So, who’s with me? While we’re at it, I think we should boycott any memes with incorrect spelling or punctuation because, well, that’s just bad grammar, and I don’t think we should be encouraging that either!
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musingmummablog 
I can’t stand all the racist, right wing crap that’s all over the internet! I block or remove anyone that puts it up because why would you want to be ‘friends’ with someone who has views so different to your own? As for the bad grammar… I’d love to block a few on that – but I like them too much in person! Also there’s a lot of dylsexia in my family, so sometimes spellings can’t be helped! #effitfriday
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I totally agree! All these “like this or you’re a terrible person” posts drive me insane. Not liking the post doesn’t mean I am any of the things you imply – it means I have better things to do than feed your ego! The ones that really bug are the ones about ill children “if this picture gets x amount of likes then they will cure her” As if the doctor is going to be sat watching the likes creep up and use this to decide whether or not to save a sick child! #effitfriday
Debbie
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Yes! Agree entirely!
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I’ve barely been on FB for the past few weeks. it seems like most of what I see just pisses me off
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There’s so much twaddle on social media, the scroll function is invaluable!
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I agree. And I had some “friends” sharing this? I couldn’t believe it, its given me a massive Facebook cull thats for sure as I can’t believe some of the ignorance out there.
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