All Bark with Your Byte

“He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help” Abraham Lincoln

Everybody has an opinion, and everybody has an opinion on having opinions.  Most people believe it is noble to have bold opinions and to voice them loudly and unapologetically, as long as those opinions match with their own.  As soon as a voice becomes contradictory, we call it a hate crime, and rush to silence them. Or as soon as opinions become inconvenient, we ditch them.

If you’ve been on any social media or website in the past week, you may have predicted where my burst of opinion on opinion is stemming from.  I can’t go more than 5 minutes without seeing another pro or anti Chick Fil A statement.

It’s not the first time that something like this has happened.  Several companies have taken stances on the issue of homosexuality and gay marriage and many either have been boycotted or crowds have simply threatened to boycott until they decided that was far too inconvenient for them (i.e.- Disney, Starbucks, GAP, JC Penney. )

Will the boycott on Chick Fil A stick? Maybe. Personally, I think it’s a lot easier to stick with taking a chicken sandwich out of our diet than it is to withhold our every morning piping hot soy-no-whip-low-fat-carma-frapa-venti-latte-datte-da drink or a family fun Disney day or front row ticket to the new 3D Finding Nemo theater experience. My question is do we really believe in what we are fighting for, or has social media led us into what I like to call, the Chihuahua effect.

If a company is supporting something that we feel is morally wrong, we should do whatever is in our power to stand up for our beliefs and to raise awareness of their unethical tactics.  But one can’t help but notice though how loudly the bark is on social media but how non-existent the bite is in reality.  It’s easy to type up a heated status condemning someone or something and think nothing of it apart from freedom of speech, but become outraged when an opposing view pops up on the Twitter feed.  Or to post every witty meme and Wonka photo we can find, but never actually do anything to fix the problem. It’s ok to have opinions, but condemnation might just be adding to the noise.

Actually acting on our convictions may just make the difference between whining and winning.

Sarah Matley
Account Services Coordinator
Mood:  Opinionated