Stop what you’re doing, this is super important: A Huffington Post blogger really doesn’t want to see your Facebook “Look Back” video, so stop sharing them all immediately.
“Nobody Wants To See Your Facebook Look Back Video” is the headline of a particularly condescending column on HuffPost Tech this morning, and though we weren’t aware that HuffPost Tech had become a “Dear Diary” for first-world problems, it kind of fits with the overall trajectory of the publication these past few years.
“This might hurt your feelings,” the post begins, “but I’m just going to come out and say it: I don’t care about your Facebook history.”
Without any real style or humor, this glorified blog post by jaded contributor Alexis Kleinman shames the practice of sharing your personalized timeline clip and rallies at least one to her cause:
I don’t want to see your Lookback video.
— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) February 5, 2014
To be honest, and with all due respect to the both of you, no one gives a shit that you don’t want to see their “Look Back” video.
You understand what social media is for, right? It’s absolutely the “me” show. That’s why it works, that’s why it’s popular. That’s why, despite your uber-cool, hipster nose-thumbing at the bourgeois practice of taking selfies and updating statuses, you, yourself have Facebook open in your browser right this instant. It’s why you have Twitter mobile, second screen on your phone.
It’s why when I say “Brannan” and “Nashville,” you think of the name and the city second.
But being a cynic is a cheap way to appear cool, so I guess for lack of something interesting to say it works, but it’d be better if you just signed off, honestly. Because being openly condescending about social media (on social media or otherwise) is still kind of a “look at me, look at me” play, isn’t it?
Because it’s kind of mean, because it’s kind of cynical, because it’s obnoxious and insulting to talk down to your reader, because it shows a gross misunderstanding of what social media is all about, and because I can’t stand when HuffPo tries to be cool, I feel compelled to offer a rebuttal to Ms. Kleinman.
Share your “Look Back” video with me. I would love to see it.
