In defense of unpopular and unspoken opinion – and how we can all #ShareDifferent)

The dawn of social media has made the world more connected, more intimate than ever before. It also seemed to make people less lonely. BSM (Before Social Media), people keep their thoughts to theirselves or confined it to their diaries, meals are shared on the table and not on an app and unpopular opinion are voiced out (and argued upon) face-to-face and in person.

The rise of the connected world assured that everybody won’t feel alone: everything is just a click and link away. Social media has allowed people to connect to virtually everyone, even your elementary school crush whom you’ve last seen 20 years ago. The rise of blogging and other content sharing sites meant that everyone can now create and share content. Suddenly, everyone is an opinion leader and a news maker.

However, no matter how the world seemed connected and that no information or opinion seemed too irrelevant not to share – would you believe that there’s still plenty of things that people don’t share on social media?

Mostly because they are afraid that they might be judged, ridiculed, or worse get fired. According to a study done by Pew Research, most of your friends on Facebook won’t share their opinion about a certain topic if they think it’s unpopular. This is a situation called spiral of silence. People are afraid to speak up for fear of isolation.

As a blogger, I can relate to this. When this blog was still private, I can pretty much write anything I want – I can rant about my co-workers, go on and on about how miserable I was working for my (then) company, how I can’t stand some people and go pretty much on and on and not care about who will read it or what other people will think. 

When I decided to make KamikazeeGirl public and join blogger groups and forums, I had to censor myself. I made a conscious effort to not inject my opinion when I write about the following:

• Politics – politics is always a tricky subject, as you risk offending someone no matter what you write. When I write about politics, I choose to write a story as it is. Very fact based, without objecting opinion or my thoughts about the whole process.
• Religion – save for my devotion to Sts. John Paul II and Padre Pio and declaring my fan status to Pope Francis; I do not write about religion because I believe it will always be a sensitive topic. One I’d rather not dip my paws on.
• Local celebrities and mainstream Filipino movies – save for independent, artsy flick, I am not much of a fan of the local mainstream movie industry. The local fan bases (especially of teen stars and “love teams”) can also be scary and rabid when they want to so I’d rather shut my mouth. So even if I have opinion coming out of my ears, I’d rather keep it to myself than be subjected to cyber-bullying. This is especially scary because there are members of the population that are so fixated on being part of “what’s in” and being on the opposite end of the spectrum and having different opinions can get you subjected to harassment.
• I also stopped writing about my family or even my struggles with infertility – but that’s more of a personal choice. My blog being made public has made me wary of sharing my personal life to the rest of the world.

The team behind the social app, Veems, has felt that many people share on social media but only topics that they think are safe or fit the status quo. While this is good, there are topics or questions in life that we must explore with other human beings. The Internet and social media are supposed to be places where we can explore our ideas freely in the first place.

Here’s a video that perfectly captures the thoughts of people who would like to talk about some serious topics on social media:

 

If you’re an extrovert who have very strong opinions or an introvert who just love to ponder on the important questions in life, here’s why Veems is a good social app for you:

1. Share a public status privately. Just like on Facebook and Twitter, you can share what’s on your mind to your followers. But instead of just posting it on your timeline, the status is sent as a private message. It becomes more personal and you don’t have to comment, “will PM you” if you want to take the conversation privately.

 2.Because when someone replies to your message, only you will see it. This puts you in control of the conversation that you started.

3. Join public chat on Veems like the Anonymous. Iddo Goren, Veems CEO, started the Anonymous public chat to help people share their ideas and emotions more freely. There are topics and certain experiences that we go through daily that we just can’t share on Facebook. The Anonymous public chat is a sure hit–with almost 5 million messages sent in a given day. Users have talked about different topics from the struggles in school to sex, parenting, religion, and relationships.

Have you ever been scared on sharing your opinion on your social media?

Find out how you can share different on Veems by visiting their website and download Veems on Google Play, so you can hugot your heart out.