Quite a few local and international influencers have recently received some heat because of reckless and insensitive comments. While a lot of people are rightfully enraged, there are still some who think that those people are just nitpicking on the influencers and being too sensitive. If you're one of the bunch that do not really get the rage behind all this.
Global Cost of Living Crisis
In case you are not aware, there currently is a cost of living crisis globally. For instance, the UK is predicted to be under recession in 2023 that could possibly stretch on until 2024. Surveys say that adults in the country would struggle with even just a $20 increase in their costs. The situation in the UK is quite complex and without the intention of downplaying the crisis, the simplest I could put it is that the inflation is high and the income is not matching up. Countries like the United States, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, among others are gearing up their economy and their people as they are starting to get high inflation hits. I will leave suggested readings below for your reference if you want to understand more about this.
Understanding how the global cost of living crisis is affecting even the richer countries, just imagine how things are not going absolutely well for the third world countries especially for the underprivileged. This is important to know in order to understand the way people are enraged right now. If you still think this is irrelevant, I highly suggest you do more readings and take and even bigger needle to burst your privileged bubble.
About Being Socially Tone Deaf
An Urban Dictionary definition describes this as:
"A condition of being oblivious and/or clueless regarding the existence of social cues, nuances, mores, norms, et cetera, within a given social subset, or more often than not totally and completely and all the time. This is distinct from the more estimable traits of being indifferent or irreverant, where one is aware of social expectations, cues, et cetera, but simply doesn't care or flat out mocks and/or rejects them."
As an example, at the height of the global pandemic in 2020, a celebrity sparked outrage after downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic, not understanding why people are so serious about it and even said that if everybody's going to get it, people are going to die which is inevitable. This was extremely insensitive especially during the time when people are suffering and anxious in all ways possible not to mention the numerous lockdowns in place. The celebrity did later apologise and realised how insensitive her statements were and that it was a huge wake up call.
A UK-based fashion influencer also recently received scrutiny for her tone deaf Tiktok video where she said she's checking in a luxury hotel in London because her heating at her country home broke. As I mentioned, the UK is under heavy cost of living crisis right now. Seing that just really made a lot of locals go off on her because a lot don't even know how they're going to pay for next month's rent and the lady just rubbed her wealth to their face.
A more common occurence for influencers locally is poverty-themed skits or content, dismissing the struggles and hard work of the average Pinoys, irrelevant "inspirational" messages, flaunting of wealth and luxury during natural disasters, etc. If you know, you know.
Even religious institutions can be social tone deaf especially when they gaslight members who cannot regularly pay their tithes or contributions when all that they earn in a month is not even enough to feed their families.
Why Are People Angry?
People are angry because they are suffering and the last thing they want to hear is dismissive actions from influencers who receive millions a month for what they do. I am not saying that influencers don't deserve what they earn, but I am only saying that people work hard in different ways and we're not all paid as much as we deserved. The world is not fair, it never was and I don't think it ever will be. We are all aware of that but it does not mean it needs to be constantly rubbed in our faces by the privileged because it hurts.
In the Philippines in 2021-2022, two out of four five Filipinos are considered poor and 19.99 million Filipinos lived below the poverty threshold.
That partially explains why there is a lot of rage for socially tone deaf content creators and celebrities and the privileged or those who feel like they're privileged do not get why the people are angry when it's not the celebrities' fault why people are poor. Their hustle, their decision on where they spend their money and they are not obligated to save the country from the poverty. That makes it more valid that the least that they could have done is to be aware of the country's state and be more cautious of the content they post online.
Why It Needs Accountability
I am not for cancel culture but I will gladly do so for brands or celebrities that are just inhumane. Being socially tone deaf is a bad mistake though I still think it's something that can be corrected. For a recent influencer's socially tone deaf post, it was not the first time. She has repeatedly shown socially tone deaf behaviour and just slapping some poor apology when she gets called out.
I don't like cancelling people, but I am all for them taking accountability.
I know you're thinking that it's their page, they can do whatever they want with it. A political science professor told us this before and it has stuck with me since...
"Your freedom stops where the right of others begin"
You may not understand how your toxic neighbour Martha might have expressed the same tone deaf sentiments and she never got hate for it but you also have to understand that Martha's influence may just be a half mile radius. She does not have millions of sitting ducks at home with a percentage of them consuming her content without rationalisation. Martha does not have as much influence as those creators or celebrities with millions of following.
It is very important to understand that social media, no matter how personal it is, will hold a certain amount of power that is equivalent to their following. If they show this kind of behaviour or any kind of toxicity, it can greatly affect how we all function as a society.
You should also be aware of how other people can gaslight you into thinking that it is your fault for not understanding what they meant. This could be said in ways like "I've been through worse so your response is invalid", "That's not what I meant, you should check yourself instead" or "I know/study/experience that so I don't see anything wrong with it. It is basically a lack of admittance of one's mistake and deflecting it to you to make them look good. Communicating on a larger scale, such as with influencers, should be treated with much care - this is why PR companies do not come cheap but are extremely necessary.
This is why we should hold influential people accountable for their wrong actions. I don't call for hate, I only call for them to take responsibility when they mess up and not end up blaming everyone else for not understanding what they meant.
Let us stop taking half-ass apologies when they end up making the same "mistake" over and over again. I think it is about time for accountability, for change and for us to have a higher standards of the people we look up to.
Sources:
- Proportion of Poor Filipinos was Recorded at 18.1 Percent in 2021 - https://psa.gov.ph/poverty-press-releases/nid/167972
- Over 5.6 million Filipino families living in poverty – DSWD - https://www.rappler.com/nation/filipino-families-living-in-poverty-2022-dswd/
- Global economy 2023: how countries around the world are tackling the cost of living crisis - https://theconversation.com/global-economy-2023-how-countries-around-the-world-are-tackling-the-cost-of-living-crisis-196740
- Inflation making lives difficult for people in the Philippines - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/6/inflation-soaring-prices-making-lives-difficult-for-filipinos
- ‘Middle class, low-income households worst hit by inflation’ - https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2022/12/02/2227881/middle-class-low-income-households-worst-hit-inflation
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