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Seeing countless videos of 'good' people doing 'nice' things has left me bitter and alone on my porch yelling at all passerby's.
I'm a big Reddit user. Partly because I don't use 'X' and still need a meme fix, and partly because I'm too lazy to scroll larger news sites unless something monumentally fucked up has occurred and caused me to venture outwards.
Recently on Reddit the popular feed has seen a consistent bleed through of videos that are poached from the other social media sites. These videos all share a common theme in that on their surface they show human beings doing nice things for others.
A person giving a homeless individual food. A teenager taking a disabled kid to prom. A couple donating money to their struggling neighbors. You know these people. You know the type of personality they have.
The problem is if you take a closer look behind their glassy eyes you'd realize their personality is garbage and built on deceit.
At what point did it become common place to film yourself doing something of noble intent? I sound old as shit, I realize that but trust me I'm only 35 when I say, what the fuck is going on around here? It's a simple answer that doesn't take a genius to figure out.
The cause is simply the fact that people now build their self worth and character online instead of in person. It's an odd phenomenon because before the last decade most people would help each other with anonymity. Shovel snow from a neighbors driveway, take in someone's groceries, let a homeless man inside a store on a cold day, things that were decent and good were done for the action itself.
Previously it was really only corporations advertising their good deeds, small businesses and charities organizing runs or food drives etc., the self was removed from the equation here. You never saw a random person take out a full page ad and state "HEY! I'M A DECENT PERSON SO REWARD ME, PLEASE GOD, I NEEEEEEEEEEEEEED THIS".
That's really what is happening whenever I see this videos. Why, just why do you need to film the good deed? It only evokes cynicism and will always get me to pause and examine your intentions. I suppose it does make me ponder the fact that it's quite impressive how quickly new technology forces evolution of social norms in such a immediate fashion.
There's no going back of course so we all have to live with it. I realize it'll always make me sound like a whiny old bag of ass when I complain about something of this nature. Usually my wife will do the solid of putting on a good show that she listened and my ramblings are justified. Then we move on. Really I don't know why I'm even sharing this opinion as there is no way I can't sound shrill. GOD DAMMIT.
To be constructive I suppose we can look to possible solutions, or at least, a middle ground between the new order and the old farts like me. If people really need a way to show to others they're a decent and generous person there are other ways apart from the shameless videos that are now commonplace. People can just rank themselves in an appropriate manner based off their good deeds, anonymously of course, in a way that will permanently reflect on all those involved. Those who wish the validation will get it, and those who wish to not participate won't have it thrust in their face. Surely, nothing could go wrong.