I am getting a little fed up with those posts on social media that are about sharing to prove you are friends with someone, promoting their interests. I do post things I am interested in on Facebook or Twitter, but I do not expect people to post the things I post with a blackmail message attached, or that is what it feels like when I read something like the following.
“If you would be there for me no matter what then copy and paste this. I’m doing this to prove a friend wrong that someone is always listening. I care…”
I do care but don’t want to post a message to prove it, I have always cared about mental health issues and any number of other things, but on the whole I tend not to share these on my feed, I suspect this is mostly because I like everyone else tend to focus on the things that matter most to me. Plus I really object to the premise that I can not be a true ‘friend’ without reposting your message, when I read something along the lines of “my true friends will repost this to their wall…” I generally consider removing these people from my friend list, as blackmail has never been part of friendship to me.
Friendship does not always mean I will be physically present when you need my support, if it is possible for me to be so, I might be. Friendship is two way, friendship is love, support, honesty, sharing, warmth, it can be brutal and loving, it can mean everything. Friendship builds communities, partnerships and life long understandings. Friendship can be tested but not with blackmail and when it is tested you won’t always realise until afterwards.
I do not expect my friends to be interested in everything or in fact anything I post about, but the things I have passion about I do post about, I suspect that this year will be filled with a couple of political issues as there are major votes on trident and the UK membership of the EU this year.
From the ‘end austerity now’ march in Manchester in October 2015
On that note: I hope that we can influence our government on both issues as we continue to waste a huge amount of money maintaining a weapons system that is used basically spells the end of the world as we know it, Trident renewal scares the hell out of me, and quite honestly we need to influence the people who are voting to keep it.
And as a people if we leave the EU we will be committing a social suicide the grants will dry up, many people don’t realise our farmers rely of help from the EU, as do most of our universities, and charities. It is more than just money though as we have a better chance of changing and influencing international law, and human rights. We have a social responsibility and yet we seem to continue to believe we would be better on our own, this is simple not true.