Don’t Yuck Someone Else’s Yum
Don’t tell me not to live
Just sit and putter
Life’s candy and the sun’s
A ball of butter
Don’t bring around a cloud
To rain on my parade
It doesn’t matter what it is — could be a sporting event, a reality TV show or movie franchise, a certain hobby or trend — there’s always going to be someone that makes a bold declaration about it. You’ve all heard it:
UGH. *NO ONE* CARES!
I saw it recently during the midterm elections — people all over the internet letting us know how obnoxious and uninteresting our “I Voted!” posts and sticker-sharings were — and going out of their way to let everyone know it. Whenever I saw another person announcing that NO ONE CARED!!!!!!!!!!!! about whether or not we all voted, I thought to myself:
Um, I do?
Funny, I *liked* seeing the posts and pictures from voters in what ended up being a pretty historic election. I *liked* seeing people proud to fulfill their civic duties and channeling that pride onto social media to say, “hey, look what I did today! I made a goddamned difference!”
So let’s just call it what it is: YOU don’t care. YOU don’t find the content interesting. YOU think the thing people are posting about/liking/getting excited over is lame. YOU don’t want to see or hear about certain content and want to shout it from a rooftop JUST SO EVERYONE IS CRYSTAL CLEAR HOW LITTLE YOU CARE ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR THING!!
“NO ONE CARES!”
But you’re wrong. People do care. Maybe not you, and in some cases — not me, either — but you’re not the judge and jury of what is worthy of being discussed in life and on the Internet. Sorry to break it to ya.
Are there things I have ZERO interest in? You bet. Are there things that irritate me on social media? Oh god, yeah. Beyond belief. But I’m a huge proponent of the motto, “promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate” and it’s something I strive to follow in my daily life. If you’re talking/posting about something on social media I don’t care about? It’s simple: I scroll past it. I don’t watch that Instagram Story. I’ve muted hashtags on Twitter for shows and sporting events that dominated my feed and I didn’t care to keep seeing them. It’s really not that hard. One thing I DON’T do? Go online and tell everyone, “OH MAH GOD, EVERYONE STOP POSTING ABOUT THIS DUMB-ASS FOOTBALL GAME!! NO ONE GIVES A SHIT!”
Because honestly? That’s just laughable; not to mention completely batshit narcissistic and delusional thinking.
I DON’T CARE ABOUT THIS THING THEREFORE IT’S STUPID AND NO ONE ELSE SHOULD LIKE IT EITHER!
The tweet that prompted this post is below, but truthfully it’s something I’ve talked about for a really long time and wholeheartedly believe. Just like the title of this post says: you don’t need to “yuck someone else’s yum.” Just shut the hell up and let people enjoy the things they want to enjoy:
My friend Brittany then said in response to the aforementioned tweet:
“THIS. But with everything. Let people enjoy sports or reality TV or comics or whatever else you dislike or think is beneath you. Everything is awful. Let people have joy wherever they can find it.”
PREACH. Capital P.
In a world with nonstop negative news cycles and things to be legitimately depressed over, let people have the things in life that bring them joy; whatever that may be. If they want to post about their workout, good for them. If they want to show you what music they’re listening to at the moment or what book they just finished, cool! If they like to post pictures of their outfits (#Guilty) or show you what they made for dinner… hey, neat! If they’re selling CBD oil or skincare products, guess what? If you don’t want em, you don’t have to buy em.
You can scroll right on past things.
You can mute people and hashtags if you find them annoying.
You can skip Instagram Stories by swiping onto the next person if you think someone posts too much.
You can even unfollow, defriend and hide those who irritate you.
But if you go out of your way to bash what people love and/or make them feel dumb for loving it?
That is SUPER lame.
