You Don’t Always Need to Share Your Opinion

I’ve seen this weird phenomenon going on lately. Every time something big happens in the world, someone comments on a blogger/influencer’s page or sends them a DM to reprimand them for not commenting on “the issue at hand.” 

Look, I get it. Sometimes we are so consumed by an issue that we feel like everyone needs to be aware/use their platform to spread awareness/ share their opinion on an issue so that we know where they stand on something. 

But we don’t live in a vacuum. If you’ve ever experienced something terrible – the death of someone you love, a miscarriage, heartbreak – you know if feels like your world is ending. Around you though, the rest of the world continues to go on. Bad things happen in the world every single day. We cannot POSSIBLY be a champion for every single cause.

For one thing, we don’t always understand every part of a story or issue. It’s not fair to ask others to opine on something they may not even fully understand. For me personally, there are a lot of things that I won’t comment on because context is important to me. And if I cannot fully understand context, I cannot fully form an opinion. 

We also need to remember that people have lives outside of social media.
Maybe they are having a bad week and they only have the capacity to share positive, uplifting, or light things.
Maybe they have to get that campaign out because they need the payment before their next mortgage payment/rent check/electricity/tuition bill is due.
Maybe they don’t have the energy to respond to all the opinions they will undoubtedly receive (because no matter what they post, someone has a differing opinion and will make it known to them). 

We don’t walk around asking every person we come across in a day what their opinions are on a certain current event. Why do we expect the same of every person we come across on Instagram? If you are searching for a reason to unfollow someone, stop searching, stop DMing them to stir the pot, and just unfollow. 

And if you’re the blogger who is receiving these messages – protect your peace, protect your energy, and keep being yourself. Don’t feel the need to express an opinion on every single issue or current event. If you want to, do it. But if you don’t, you don’t owe your opinion to anyone.

xoxo,