This can be bigger things like human rights issues thinly veiled as ‘political’ views, which are bound to cause offence. Our ‘what-about-ism’ would be a useful skill if it simply stopped there. Unfortunately, it does not.
Picture this - someone is making a delicious seasonal tomato soup on their TikTok. Pretty uncontroversial, right? Wrong.
I can almost guarantee that the comments would be full of “what about if I don’t like tomato soup” and “vegetable soup is better”, which are all valid points, sure - but in your own head. It’s as though we’ve forgotten how to process our emotions, and we make any negative feeling someone else’s problem, even about something as mundane as tomato soup.
It’s as though we’ve forgotten how to process our emotions, and we make any negative feeling someone else’s problem
We are constantly looking for justifications that we’re right about everything, and we seem to see ourselves reflected through our surroundings. Other people have never been so relatable, and at the same time, they’ve never been so veiled from us either. This ‘what-about-ism’ seems to be a symptom of disconnect in a world that has become too connected. Essentially, the problem may not be the kind of soup you’re making, but the audience you’re making it for.
I’m not sure this is entirely our fault, though, as we were never meant to be this constantly aware of other people’s lives. There is so much unnecessary stimuli that we feel the need to respond to, and not all of it is relevant for us. We expect a degree of control over what we let ourselves see, but when the world is at our fingertips, how can we resist?
