The impact of social media on our lives has been discussed time and time again. It affects our mental health, our relationships and the information we’re exposed to; we know that its reach is extensive. What we may not realize is that these online spaces are part of our real lives, whether or not the interactions on them are happening in a physical space.
The accounts that exist on social media are there for several reasons. Many people use social media as a documentation of what’s going on in their lives, while many others use these platforms to promote businesses or to create content for money. Some may create accounts to observe the goings on of others, and some make platforms based on or for larger groups of people. These accounts that aim to reflect the character of a large number of people are the ones that we as a school should be paying attention to.
Many accounts on Instagram are not officially affiliated with Manheim Township, but are run by and have content involving students from the district. Some of these accounts are made to shout out students in a positive way. One of these is @mths_personoftheday, which highlights a student of MT High School each day, and accepts requests for someone to be highlighted along with a song of their choosing – or it is decided based on a randomized wheel of names. This account allows students to highlight a high schooler in our district and is set up so that unnecessary and unkind commentary does not stem from the account itself.
Some of these accounts, however, operate as a sort of middle ground between harmless and purposefully harmful. Much of their purpose is to post funny things going on in our district. Some of the accounts that fall under this category are @memeheim_township and @mtwpmemevault_. While some of the memes posted on these accounts involve playful jokes at others’ expense, their purpose is often not received as intentionally harmful. When viewing these kinds of posts, we do need to be careful to notice when something regarded as funny gets out of hand and begins turning into intentional ridicule of a specific person or group.
With both of the aforementioned kinds of accounts being said, we must be aware of and call out accounts that aim to hurt those in our district. One of these accounts, @mths_hottakes, began as a place for MT students to share their “hot takes” on different girls in our district based on their attractiveness. Hot takes are opinions on recent events or topics that could be deemed controversial and are often expressed to attract attention. It’s easy to see why this account went downhill very quickly – the projected purpose of the platform that was created was to post things that spark disputes and gain attention. The people that interacted with this platform knew that they were allowed to say and do things regardless of their impact on other people. Especially seeing as the hot takes on this account were of a specified genre, the blatant disregard for the humanity of the girls that it highlighted was obvious. The account responsible for this has since been taken down, but that does not minimize the effect that it had on anyone posted.
This account hurt people. It made people feel unsafe within our district, and it allowed a platform for worth based on attractiveness to exist and be promoted. That is not okay. Many of us know that it wasn’t okay, but the fact that this account happened in the first place and that people interacted with it to support its goals is evidence that some people believe it is okay.
As a district, we cannot let this be a reflection of the majority. We have to take action when we see harmful accounts and inexcusable ridicule being taken part in. We can let our parents know, we can tell friends and notify teachers or principals. In whatever way we choose to do it, we have to make sure that the people who believe it is okay to promote judging a person’s character based on what they look like know that they are outnumbered. We have to do what we can to make Manheim Township a safe place, and to care enough to try.
