Tragic events always seem to arise, no matter how many movements, parades, or riots are held, there is always something new. Since these conflicts never seem to get resolved, society has completely normalized the conflict, and continues to live like normal.
During 2020, the rise of a Black Lives Matter Movement aka “BLM”, brought attention to police brutality. This was a time when Gen-Z took a stand on the racial discrimination and police brutality targeted towards the African American community. No matter the race, there was a flood of supporters bringing awareness to the racial issues that were arising.
Now, in 2024, the main Instagram page for the BLM movement with over 3.5 million followers, Blklivesmatter, only receives roughly 2,000 likes per post. While famous influencer Jayden Bartels, with the same amount of followers, receives an average of 40k likes, or more.
On social media, people tend to care when they are told to. We live in a world directed by trends. Once a movement’s popularity passes, society forgets that it is still an issue. Majority of social media influencers who support causes, but neglect it after the fame passes, are not people who deserve fame.
When opening social media, you can expect to hear devastating news, and when this becomes a daily occurrence, people get used to it. The presence of conflict begins to normalize, and people shut out what is going on simply because it isn’t a direct threat to them.
Mikayla McFarland, an 18-year-old Palomar student, believes that society has become numb to the pain of conflict.
“We get sad about the occurrence for a few days but then we’re right back to normal. It’s really disappointing especially since these events are scary and have a big impact on people who may have personally been affected,” McFarland said.
McFarland said, “I think society has become this way because there’s not enough people pushing for a change. Also, I think some communities are afraid to speak up about certain conflicts because they’re scared of what other people will think”.
As social media continues to grow using trends and popularity, it is the main source of widespread information.
Every day, a new conflict will arise and overtake the one from yesterday. Society has been trained to push through depressing events and continues to live in a loophole lifestyle to survive. As a result, there is no time to dwell on one specific situation.
Society becomes used to the trends, and by using trends as movements, society learns how to accept the constant shift within conflict. It is difficult for one issue to be considered still relevant when nothing changes, so people move on.
If society wants this to change, we need genuine people present as influencers. Giving fame to influencers who make posts just to hop on a trend aren’t people who gullible viewers should idolize.
As society continues to evolve, one can only hope for positive change and a better future for everyone, even if we need to pause time, and stick to one conflict at a time, until it is resolved.
