5 Reasons Why Changing Your Profile Picture Didn't Change the World

I generally loathe people that change their profile pictures to the special filters of a season, just as a fashion expert loathes followers of last year’s fashion. I understand their motive to be accepted, but what does changing their profile have to do with regard to the world around them? I recognize this isn’t good practice to judge people based on their need to be involved, but do we really look at everyone’s picture for the day in our “feed” and think oh yeah, I need to donate some money to a relief group in France, or join a cause. I’d say in most cases people have these thoughts, but rarely act on the solutions to the problem

Let’s face it, changing a profile picture, or dumping a bucket of ice water on yourself can enliven your senses and give you a sense of importance, but are we really accomplishing anything by doing this? For the most part I think that people’s action to change their profile picture, or add a filter, in support of a cause raises awareness to those around them, but in reality it doesn’t do a lot more than that.

To me, changing your profile picture is almost a passive response to what’s going on in the world. The action of changing a profile picture is an outward expression of a desire to be involved, while at the same time those who do this almost never take action on the issue at hand. I believe they’re just trying to spread their influence digitally; which often doesn’t do a whole lot.

I thought of some reasons why changing your profile picture might not make a huge difference. It might make me sound a little hopeless about technology, and the people around me, but I just want people to recognize there’s a lot more we can do about events happening in the world around us. Other than posting something online and taking no action in real life outside digital mediums.

1| Proximity

Two guys standing behind anothe guy and a girl while all looking and smiling at a Mac laptop. A lot of people are going to see your profile picture and think, “Yeah I support that cause. I’m going to change mine too.” I think this is a good thing generally, even though I critiqued it in the first paragraph, raising awareness via profile picture change can be effective. On the other hand, when profile pictures are changed and no real world application is taken, your profile picture becomes a part of an information bundle, and it’s an eyesore for the rest of us.

One theorist named Jodi Dean said this is how the spreading of information works these days, in the internet age. A lot of the same information is reproduced and bundled, and is often seen floating around the internet; but not responded to.

Additionally, a lot of people who are your friends on Facebook first had to be friends in real life or acquaintances, so they’re going to be in the immediate area you live in. And liking their changed profile picture isn’t going to change a whole lot, or do anything in real life. The only thing it might do is make the microchips in your computer heat up.

If people really want to make a change they should promote a Facebook page with the direct link to a certain cause, or information explaining the reasons to join and how you they can support it.

Most organizations or groups online these days will ask for money, but I don’t think giving an organization money will help them as much as giving your time and labor. In the long run this extends your proximity to those you might not know and you’ll end up building their work force, and in my opinion that's more valuable than money. But if you are unable to reach the location of a certain group money is always a strong back up.

2| Influence

A picture of half of a capital building on the right side of the picture. These days especially with mobile applications like Instagram and Twitter where there’s a head count of people following you, or “followers”, people feel really important. We think everything we post will make a huge ripple in our sea of influence. It won’t. I think people need to understand that their friends on Facebook aren’t the only people that exist, and for the most part I’d say that they do, but some don't obviously.

A lot of what people post these days and say on the internet, I feel, doesn’t effect how people react and cope with issues. On the other hand, if no one were to post about catastrophes then we would only hear about them through the local and international news channels. Thus, limiting interpretation of an incident to the corporations of the world. Therefore, we would have no personal thoughts on the issues at hand and that would be a problem. So in a way it’s a good thing.

What I’m getting at here is posting online only influences those in your friend circle and doesn’t effect overall society. Social media has been great to help people with digital displays of self and opinion, but those within your circle of friends most often already have the same, if not similar ideas that you do; I mean that's probably why they’re your friends.

What I’m suggesting is that people should share their opinions in a classic type of way by going to public forums on things they deem important, following up with politics, learning about bills, and even attend presidential caucuses. If people were able to share the same strong opinions as they do online, than in person and with people other than their friends. I think there would be healthy room for discussion and controversy; creating more probable room for change. (For more information about creating healthy places for discussions, visit 7 Tips For Creating Safe Spaces For Speaking Out Ed.)

3| Displacement

A large group of people at a march and someone is holding up a sign that says 'Does Anything Even Matter Anymore?' Let me reiterate, changing your profile picture does something, well kind of, it displaces action in the real world with action in digital subspace. This is pretty prevalent in groups today that feel that when they share a post or like it, they are actually participating in a democratic discussion; when in fact they aren’t.

A theorist named Carl Boggs in an article called “The Great Retreat: Decline of the Public Sphere in Late Twentieth-Century America” talks about the attitude of displacement. Summarizing Boggs, he says people no longer get involved in politics, or if they do they are in the minority, but now displace political change with other movements such as environmentalism, feminism and other isms. Essentially, by getting involved with other causes people lose the desire to change their political world, or the world around them, and instead change themselves.

While I see where Boggs is coming from, I don’t agree that getting involved with other causes such as environmentalism and feminism is a bad thing. It just displaces motivation to get involved in the political sphere, much like changing a profile picture displaces real world interaction with others.

There are a lot of things you can do to participate in political change, rather than displace it. On a small scale there are a lot of websites that offer services that directly link people with causes, showing them how they can help to get involved. One of them is called changes.org where you can sign petitions and get involved with problems you deem troublesome in society.

4| Digital Space

Two men and one women are sitting at a table with coffee cups and laptops. One man is drinking coffee and the othe man and woman are looking at a Mac computer. A lot of years a go people got together at coffee shops, parks, and other places of that sort, to discuss issues ailing their society. A theorist named Jürgen Habermas deemed this type of public space and the interaction that took place there, as the catalysts for change. I feel like Habermas has an ideal public model of talking things through in a public place that has become almost non-existent in our society today.

Today someone will post something on the internet and often someone won’t agree with it and attack that person and their idea. In the long run it really doesn’t do anything, but give the said attacker a feeling of connection; when in reality all they’ve done is made their opponent fixed in their opinion and disgruntled by those around them. We have shut a door to a room where we could have expanded each others understanding. A place where our own view of the world and theirs could possibly align.

Ideally, if more conversations were to take place in a physical setting, I feel that most of the issues of disagreement could dissolve when talking face to face. Engaging with one another in real time, even if they are angry with the other, often causes people to hold in their reactions until the person has left, mulling it over internally and producing the potential for change. Versus swearing obscenities into wide empty space of bundled information called the internet.

Even though we might not all be white rich guys sitting and drinking coffee. Overall what makes a public effective is a willingness to communicate and understand each other. And the internet is a place, or at least in my opinion, where we only reach out to discover ourselves and our own opinions; verses the discovery others and theirs.

So have a cup of coffee with a stranger and maybe you’ll change their mind about our society and make the world a better place. I don’t know, maybe. (If you are looking for a coffee shop in Orem, Utah, visit Top 10 Best Coffee & Tea Near Orem, Utah

5| Beauty Hierarchy

A picture of Kyle Jenner putting on makeup with the word 'Vogue' in the bottom left corner. Beauty is often defined as being in the eye of the beholder, but online it’s a different story. Most pictures online are often liked just because the person sharing it is deemed “beautiful”; even if their opinion associated with their picture isn’t.

As we go towards an increasingly visual society where opinions and ideals are encrypted into images. I think the sharing of an opinion becomes less of ethos based as it was back in the day, and more of something imprinted into a person’s visual aesthetic; we no longer respect people for ideas and knowledge, we respect them for their outward appearance.

Based on the likes that people receive one could conclude that this is how our society works; beauty equals influence. If I were to believe my own train of thought and the evidence that is on the web, this would certainly be true.

For example, some of the highly attended speeches on Universities are not given by Philosophers or Politicians, but by movie stars. You might ask isn’t a University a place for learning? The answer you receive could be a confident maybe with an accompanying shrug. (See Colleges Should Favor Scholars Over Celebrities as Graduation Speakers | Opinion Ed.)

So how can we change this train of thought? One of the ways is researching values, ideas and beliefs ourselves. I mean you don’t have to listen to the “beautiful”-dumb people of the world, you can become one yourself. And then in turn share your opinion.

What can we do?

Four people watching a sunset on a cliff and resting their arms on each others shoulders. Living in the age of the internet, I ask myself this question everyday, what can we do? I would say we need to get involved more and share information that by reaches outward towards groups and people who need our help the most, rather than reaching out as means of self promotion.

We can do this by what I have said before, attending political caucuses, volunteering with groups that need our help (and I mean any group the red cross, the United volunteers of America, etc.), standing with movements like “#blacklivesmatter” and even signing petitions online. Although I’ve said words against social media it can be used for some good. As means of an example, in 2011 there was a hashtag called “#askobama” which was implemented where President Obama held a town hall meeting exclusively on twitter and answered tweets personally. I found this to be pretty amazing based on the fact that people who had contact back in the day with a president, or Presidents, were only presidential nominees and respected white house officials. (You can find a list of other movments at Meet Top 10 Political Organizations Shaping Millennial Leaders in America Ed.)

There are benefits of social media, I’ll give you that, but we have to ask ourselves if doing something as simple as changing our profile picture can make a difference.

5 Reasons Why Changing Your Profile Picture Didn't Change the World

by Eston Stowers

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