ERICA GOLDSON: Graduation speech
I’ve heard that this comic is speaking to people a lot— not just pseudointellectual artist types who want to make fun of the “drones", but people who identify with the narrator on a really, really, deep level. So I want to honor that, as much as I can.
But I also feel very, very strongly that the message that this comic sends is bullshit, and also harmful, and I want to talk about that.
In this new age of the Internet, and especially with the rise of social media, we’ve been given an extraordinarily powerful tool. We’re quantifying positive social feedback. Facebook will tell you how many friends you have; Twitter will tell you how many followers you have; Tumblr will tell you how much Society liked your product, and how much they wanted to share it.
I’m not going to fall into the get-off-my-lawn trap of saying that Social Media Is Ruining Society, because it’s not. I will say that social media— and the 24-hour news cycle, and the explosion of reality TV and celebrity culture, and the explosion of creative Internet communities like those on YouTube and AO3— create systems in our society that encourage us to value fame.
A post on Tumblr is valued by how many notes it has. Fanfictions on AO3 are valued by how many kudos they’ve gotten, or how many hits they have. We value ourselves by how many followers we have, celebrate when we hit milestones, feel spikes of anxiety when we lose the follows of people we’ve never spoken to and whose names we’ll never know.
And— and this is separate, but related— we value creativity very, very highly. Someone who spends most of their time and blogspace drawing amusing fanart, or who comes up with a fresh, clever idea for a blog, or who makes interesting points about social justice in new ways, is going to have a lot more followers than someone who spends most of their time and blogspace talking to their friends, or reblogging a variety of fandoms.
So. We value fame; we value creativity; we value the unique; we value the new and interesting and exciting.
We don’t value hard work, or practicality, or honesty, or responsibility, or kindness, or logic.
For the most part, we ignore those qualities. We don’t recognize and reward them in others. Because of the way our society is structured, on a really literal level, we cannot recognize and reward those qualities in others, because they’re qualities you see play out in real life, not the Internet. (Which— again— increased Internet social interaction is not a good thing or a bad thing. It’s just a thing.)
I’m not speaking here as someone who Tumblr ignores. I’m speaking as someone who doodled in class, who didn’t turn in assignments because she was writing stories, who devotes a lot of time and energy into creating and being creative. I’m speaking as someone who was raised to be someone who does all things in moderation, to be practical and logical and hardworking, and who instead became a passionate idealist who dreams too much, and who couldn’t be happier.
And yet.
What makes me better than Erica Goldson?
What makes me better than my brother, who became with his whole heart the practical, sensible adult that my parents wanted, who mocks me when I’m being pretentious and grounds me when my head is in the clouds and made sure I grew up smart and strong and safe, who is my favorite person in the entire world? What makes me better than my friends, who went into computers instead of the arts and who did their homework instead of doing art, who make me laugh and make me think and put up with me when I’m outrageous, and who I love better than anything? What makes me better than my mother, who was the only reason I ever did my work or extra credit, who works every day from sunrise until sunset through carpal tunnel syndrome and sciatica and insomnia to make the world better, and who I’m prouder of than even I can really comprehend?
What makes me better than any of these people? Doodling in class?
I won’t pretend creativity and uniqueness and self-motivation aren’t important— they’re what drive my life, after all. But to devalue what may be strong in favor of what is exciting, to devalue what may be kind and caring in favor of what is entertaining, to devalue what may be good in favor of what is shiny, is a mistake.
Every person in this world has value. Every person in this world has things about them that are incredible. And every person in this world deserves to have their good qualities honored and recognized.