Get Your Moronic Divorce Selfies off of My Internet Lawn
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Internet Idiots make my fists clench
Last night I was goofing around on my phone, and I came across one of the weirdest, and eventually, most infuriating articles I have ever read.
First off, I enjoy Buzzfeed. The website is kind of like my trashy reality TV on the internet. I think that they have legitimately funny articles, and when they do get serious, it is usually well thought out and well written. But, sometimes they put out an article like they did last night, and I thought it was out of place and just something thrown together last minute.
The article in question was about a new fad that was people taking "selfies" after getting divorced. Right out of the gate, I am not a fan of the "selfie". There is nothing more gratuitous than someone taking a picture of themselves, then putting it out there for the world to see. "Selfies" were not a thing when I was younger. We had disposable cameras, and if we wanted a picture of our self, we needed someone else to snap it for us. If we tried to do it on our own, it was always off center, blurry or both.
Nowadays, and I know this makes me sound old I don't care, "selfies" are everywhere. Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are filled with people taking pictures of themselves and posting them with some stupid message. The message is always something ridiculous like, "just left the gym" or "look at this food on my face" or "this is me without make up" or "look at my new, retro glasses" or "what does everyone think of my haircut". I say to all of this WHO CARES! The only person that this stuff should matter to is yourself, and your partner if you are in a relationship. Those are the only 2 people that any of this is of any significance to. This could all be because I do not personally like pictures of myself, but I really despise the "selfie" culture.
Also, why do people want their divorce plastered all over the internet? Do people think this will get them famous? I guess I'm writing about it today, so maybe it works, but Jesus Christ this is stupid. I know some people rush into marriage, fall out of love, find someone else they may think they want to be with, whatever it may be. I have no problem with divorce. Some people are much better off as friends, or completely cutting ties all together. That is fine. But, I ask again, why take pictures of yourselves after signing the papers? Why is this a thing now? I hope it goes the wayside, a la my idea a few years back to send people pictures of Gotye, then captioning it, "You got Gotye'd!". Obviously, that never took off, and I hope this Buzzfeed feature about divorce "selfies" never does either.
Yes, I clicked on the story, it was obvious click bait, so they did get my eyeballs, but what I saw was so god damn stupid. The pictures were ridiculous. People were obviously doing proper poses for these pictures. People were also putting side by side photos of the day they got married next to the day they got divorced. It was insanity. These people looked like they were having fun while going through a very rough process. I saw a guy and a girl that just got divorced, and they looked happier than ever. Sure, divorce was probably best for them, but good god, show some kind of remorse. Other people were writing stupid captions, as one is want to do with "selfies", like, "this is the day I became one" or "me and my best friend are finally cutting ties" or "even though we are getting divorced, we still dress alike". It was complete nonsense.
This is the biggest problem with people in modern times. We are all looking for our fifteen minutes of fame, and we will do anything, no matter how self deprecating or embarrassing it may be, to get it. We will put ourselves in the worst possible situations just to get a mention or a retweet or a like on Facebook. It is pretty upsetting. I do not like the way this stuff is trending. I mean, when a publication like Buzzfeed, which is a big company, picks up a story like this, and runs with it, it makes me sick. We have real problems going on in the world right now, but stupid ass "divorce selfies" are being mentioned by a lot of people, including me today.
I hate this so much, so I wanted to write about why I dislike it so much, but I hate that it has effected me so much. I was viscerally upset when chatting with my wife about this last night. For the record, she thought it was stupid too, but she realizes when stuff like this isn't worth getting angry over. I'm not there yet. I don't know what it is, but this "divorce selfie" thing really made me mad and I had to let you all know about it. I'll get back to some happier stuff tomorrow, Dan Auerbach's second solo record comes out, so I'll write about that, but today I needed to vent to everyone about this stupid new fad. I hope it fades away as quickly as it came on. Fingers crossed.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Keep reading his stuff, and you may be lucky enough to get Gotye'd.