I’ve been in Bali for the past week and, for the most part, off Facebook and social media. However, on my return (a whole one day) I quickly became aware of a new Facebook Meme tag doing the rounds. I’m sure if you’ve been on the internet in the past few days you’ve likely seen it.
Let me paint the picture for you
It usually involves a different looking person, maybe someone overweight or with braces or someone like Lizzie Velasquez who suffers from a rare disease that makes her look very different from other people. The picture has text added along the lines of
“I’m waiting for (insert common name here) please tag him/her or so and so promised to meet me for drinks”
When I first saw one pop up on my timeline I didn’t laugh or even internally giggle. I didn’t get it full stop. But I left it, however as I scrolled through more and more started appearing and I felt rather disgusted. I just can’t see the humour in something like this. It seemed almost cruel to the people in the pictures. Did they know their photo was being used as a mockery? How would I feel if it was MY photo being used in these memes?
Turns out I wasn’t the only one thinking this
Lizzie, who I mentioned earlier, is an extremely prominent Motivational Speaker in the States. She has something known as Marfan Disease and is unable to accumulate body fat – thus her appearance. Lizzie was used in one of the pictures. This was her response to the image:
I think she sums up rather well what I was thinking when I saw these memes: this really isn’t nice! Its online bullying and seems cruel to laugh at the expense of others who probably don’t want their picture going viral on the internet.
So next time you see one of these Facebook Memes please try fight the urge to tag. It really isn’t that nice.
