(Freeways are empty during afternoon rush hour in Los Angeles after a shelter-in-place order. Photograph: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
There have been many times in my college career where I wished I could just stay home, lay in bed, and play video games all day. What I once yearned for is now what I dread.
Since our government started to take the pandemic seriously, I have felt far less motivation to remove myself from my phone. My average daily usage bumped a whole two hours for my daily average. In turn, my usage of Twitter and Reddit also increased, with Reddit overcoming Instagram to be my second most used app throughout this crisis. Through Twitter, I can tell that COVID-19 has had a similar effect on many of us. As the world’s group chat, my timeline is full of other accounts expressing the virtual equivalent of an amen by drafting and retweeting posts about gaining weight, boredom at home, and anger for those not complying to government regulations of staying home. Furthermore, news headlines on my timeline have given me access to articles and other users’ perception of them- for better or worse.
For instance, this meme of rapper Playboi Carti frames the artist as warning us about the upcoming pandemic through his lyrics, which are communicated in the style of popular lyric annotation site Genius.
I find this artifact interesting because it is such a strong reflection of how modern youth culture deals with crisis: cracking jokes through the manipulation of popular media while ironically positioning a celebrity not known for activism at the helm of addressing the issue. Our generation does not take crises seriously. We have been distracted our whole lives from world issues and we use memes to make sense of it all.
“In prehistoric times, mankind often had only two choices in crisis situations: fight or flee. In modern times, humor offers us a third alternative; fight, flee – or laugh.”
Robert Orben
When it comes to the hard news, this article from my home island’s local news has stuck out to me because it shows the intersection of colonization, pandemic, and government action. Not only did this hit close to home, it also showed how U.S. territories are subjugated to maintaining U.S. interests over their own. Guam does not have the medical infrastructure to support all the potential Manåmko’ that would need attention if the outbreak were to be poorly contained. Considering how there are insufficient test kits and no disclosure of the specific quarantine area on base, things can turn sour real quick.
While these two sites have been reliable distractions, Instagram has somehow outdone itself as the most insufferable app in popular media. I scroll through posts and stories wondering how people can even post about their glamorous lives throughout a global pandemic. Furthermore, these challenges and tags have made the social site on the level of corniness of Facebook, the old people app. It’s miserable over there but I still use it- I mean have free time.
But this free time has come at a cost. A lot of people seem to realize how unhappy they are without distractions. I’ve definitely laid in my bed all day questioning the futility of my actions a time or two and Twitter let me know that I’m not alone. This usually happens when I feel like I haven’t done anything worthy or meaningful that day, a goal-post that consistently changes based on my mood. However, I have consistently found that good conversations, quality meals, and a few moments to appreciate the sky are what makes me happy. Social Media, Celebrities, etc. is exposing itself as non-essential during crisis. Maybe after the brunt of this is over, our culture will change its priorities.
“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger–but recognize the opportunity.”
John F. Kennedy
Alfred Bordallo // ASCJ 200 