High Status or "I Promise You-This is Affecting Me More"

You don't have to donate time. You don't have to donate energy. You don't even have to donate your efforts. You can just donate your Facebook status. It's the new trendy way to show people you care about something, you know, when you don't care enough to actually do anything real about it. You just care enough to donate your Facebook status.

This isn't always a bad thing-I thought people donating their statuses on election day to remind people to vote was cool. But I gotta say, I'm pretty appalled by the newest trend-donating your status to show people just how much carnage and destruction your side has suffered in the recent Gaza bombings. So if you support Israel, your status might say something like, "12 Hamas rockets & 5 mortars hit Israel so far today. 1 rocket hit an educational institute." Or if you support Palestine and Hamas, it might say something like "In 17 days 919 Palestinians killed by Israel including 284 children & 100 women, 4260 injured."

I have to say, I think Facebook has really found a new way to trivialize the Israeli/Palestinian conflict like never before. What these status updates do is turn what's going on in Gaza from an extremely complicated foreign dispute to a plain old competition. They might as well say, "My side has suffered the most. We win!" or "My side had so many people die today-I'm prepared for your pity." Give me a break.

This type of crap drives me nuts. It's not a race, it's not a sporting event, it's people's lives. It trivializes it. There's just no other word for it. You really want to show people how much you care about it? Find someone who supports the other side and talk to them. Or just remind them how many rockets they shot at you in the past week. That'll probably breed a ton of understanding and unity.