covellistake

I’ve had an epiphany people! I think I’ve finally worked out what we’re all doing wrong. We’re not actually trying to be good people anymore. We’re just trying to look like good people.

And there’s obviously a difference.

Somewhere along the way, doing something decent quietly stopped being enough and now we have to be seen doing it, preferably with a photograph and a hashtag.

And, if possible, a tasteful little graphic explaining just how bloody wonderful we are. Which I’ve just realised is slightly ironic, because I’m currently writing a blog telling you how much I dislike people telling everyone how morally wonderful they are so technically, I’m virtue signalling about my hatred of virtue signalling.

Jesus, I’ve only been writing for five minutes and I’m already part of the problem. Oh well, we all know I’m going to carry on anyway.

And before anyone starts, no, this isn’t going to be me telling you which causes you should support, which opinions you’re allowed to have or which side of the internet I think is right.

That’s not really what I’m getting at.

The point is that, somewhere between actually doing something good and telling everyone you’ve done something good, we’ve created an entire industry. Companies do it, celebrities do it, Influencers, politicians and yes, normal bods like me and you do it too.

Although unfortunately, nobody’s offered to pay me for it, go figure….

Let’s start with the corporations. Because companies have discovered something absolutely brilliant; Looking like you care is considerably cheaper than actually fixing something. As an example, every year, certain companies suddenly discover that Pride exists.

Their social media logos change. Their websites get a rainbow makeover. Their adverts suddenly feature every possible combination of human known to science. And I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing. If a company genuinely supports something, brilliant. But then you start asking the awkward questions. What are they actually doing?

Are they donating money?

Are they changing their employment practices?

Are they improving conditions for their workers?

Are they supporting organisations doing actual work?

Or did someone in the marketing department spend twenty minutes changing the logo before moving on to the next campaign? Because changing a bloody logo is easy. Changing the way you operate is considerably harder.

And that’s the bit that interests me.

Because we’ve now got exactly the same thing happening with individuals. And this is where social media gets itself involved. We now often see someone walking up to a homeless person and giving them some food, that’s a decent thing to do and your get no argument from me.

If someone’s hungry and you give them something to eat, you’ve done something good. But now imagine there’s a camera crew standing ten feet away. The person hands over the food. The homeless person says thank you. And then, rather than simply walking away, our hero immediately turns around and desperately starts looking for their “Video Producer” mate.

“Did you get that?”

“Was it in shot?”

“Did you get the bit where I gave him the food?”

“Please tell me you got it.”

Then comes the moment they turn towards the camera, take a cheeky little pause, then throw a slight smile into the Lense, you know the one, the kind of expression that says:

“Aren’t I bloody brilliant?”

And there it is, the moment that was supposedly about helping another human has suddenly become content. And not just content. Monetised content. Because this isn’t necessarily about the homeless person anymore.

It’s about views.

Subscribers.

Engagement.

Algorithms.

Advertising revenue.

The next subscriber target.

Maybe the person genuinely wanted to help. I don’t know. And that’s important because I’m not sitting here pretending I can see inside someone else’s head. To be fair, I have absolutely no idea what’s going on in my own half the time.

But I think, if you have to film the act, edit it, add some dramatic music, put it on YouTube and then wait for the views to roll in, at what point does the good deed become a business model?

Because the person receiving the food gets a sandwich. The person giving it gets subscribers and potentially money.

But there’s something uncomfortable about turning someone else’s difficult circumstances into a promotional vehicle for yourself. Imagine if the homeless person had turned around afterwards and said:

“Hang on mate, how much are you making from this video?”

“Well, I’ll get about 80,000 views for this one.”

“Good for you. Can I have a percentage of the money made?”

“Err,, not really, I just gave you some food”

Suddenly the moment doesn’t feel quite so selfless does it. And this is where I think we’ve confused doing something good with being seen to do something good.

They’re not the same thing.

Social media has made the second one incredibly easy. See something you think will make you look like a good person, you re-post it, share it, change your profile picture and then wait for people to agree and give you a big pat on the back.

Congratulations. You’ve now demonstrated your moral credentials, probably before you’ve even finished your first coffee of the day and let’s face it, probably not give it a second thought for the rest of that day.

We’ve created an environment where being seen to care has somehow become more important than actually caring. It hasn’t helped that now we’re expected to have an opinion on absolutely everything that the internet thinks is morally right or wrong.

Something happens somewhere in the world at 10 o’clock in the morning.

By 10:15, social media wants to know what you think.

By 10:20, people are asking why celebrities haven’t commented.

By 10:30, somebody’s accusing somebody else of being complicit because they haven’t posted anything. And by lunchtime someone has already demanded a boycott. Apparently, we’re all supposed to instantly become some sort of all knowing Oracle from the Matrix and that’s ridiculous, especially when I struggle to remember what my own name is half the bloody time.

But apparently, I’m expected to understand a complicated geopolitical crisis before breakfast.

And God help you if you say: “I don’t know enough about this to have an opinion.” That might actually be one of the most controversial things you can say online. Because silence isn’t always allowed to be silence anymore. People want to know why you haven’t posted.

If you do post, they want to know why you didn’t say what they said. If you say something slightly wrong in their eyes, you’re an idiot. And if you change your mind six months later because you’ve learned something new? Good luck with that. The internet never forgets.

This kind of thing makes people second guess themselves, what if I don’t come across as an outstanding human? What if Linda down the road thinks I’m a bad person? I truly think people are more concerned with their projected image than anything else.

Which brings me to what I remember from years gone by. I’ve got enough experience behind me to remember a time when supporting something for the right reasons generally meant actually doing something There wasn’t a little blue tick to work towards and nobody was going to give you ten thousand likes.

You just did it. And perhaps that’s the difference. Doing something decent used to be something you did. Now, sometimes, it feels like it’s something you announce.

And corporations have obviously jumped on this too.

Because they know exactly what people want to see. They throw out a message they think gives them the high ground, they give us a colourful logo or an emotional advert showing how very virtuous they are. And then we’ll all obviously feel slightly better about buying their trainers. Or coffee, or phone, or whatever the hell it is their selling.

And again, there’s nothing wrong with companies supporting social causes. There can be genuine value in doing so. But consumers are becoming increasingly capable of spotting when something feels genuine and when it feels like a marketing department has discovered their going to be short in bonus on payday.

And once people become cynical about everything, even genuine efforts start getting ignored.

That’s the fatigue factor.

Every advert seems to want to tell us something. Every company has a mission. Every celebrity has a cause. Every social media platform is full of people telling us in order to be a good person, this is what you should think.

Sometimes I just want to buy a bloody pair of trainers.

I don’t need the trainer company to explain the moral position of the trainer. I just need them to fit my feet.

That’s it.

I’m not asking them to solve the world’s problems. I’ve got enough trouble trying to get my head around them myself. And maybe that’s where this all becomes counterproductive. When everything becomes a moral statement, eventually people stop listening. Not necessarily because they disagree, not necessarily because they don’t care. I think that sometimes they’re just bloody exhausted and don’t want another lecture.

Sometimes I just want to watch the football and that doesn’t make me a terrible person. At least I hope it doesn’t.

Although if Spurs keep playing the way they are, I may need to revise that statement.

Real virtue is usually quite boring. It doesn’t necessarily photograph well, and it doesn’t come with a hashtag. It might involve giving your time when you’d rather be sitting on the sofa. It might involve giving money when you’ve got very little spare. It might even mean admitting you were wrong. (Not me, obviously).

It might mean helping someone who can’t do anything for you in return and, it might mean changing your own behaviour rather than pandering to what you think the internet demands you should feel or act like.

I’m not saying we should stop talking about important issues because of course we shouldn’t. I’m not saying companies shouldn’t support causes because they should be free to in the same way as you and I. What I’m questioning is whether we’ve started confusing publicly declaring our virtue with actually practising it.

Because they’re not the same thing.

You don’t have to announce or film every decent thing you do, you don’t need applause and you really don’t even need anyone to know and perhaps that’s the test.

If nobody ever found out you’d done something decent… would you still do it?

That’s probably a better measure of character than how many likes you get. Although, having said that, if anyone wants to like this blog, I certainly won’t be offended.

I know, I’m a bloody hypocrite. Because as alluded to earlier, here I am, writing about people who want everyone to know how morally wonderful they are, while simultaneously telling you how wonderfully self-aware I am for recognising it.

That’s awkward, I’ve basically walked straight into my own argument. So maybe I haven’t escaped the Virtue Signalling world after all.

Maybe I’m just trading in a slightly different currency. Words, opinions and the occasional well-placed swear word.  

Maybe being a decent human was never supposed to be something we displayed. Maybe it was just meant to be something we did.

Quietly without the logo and definitely without a videographer on standby. I truly think we need to get back to a time where it didn’t matter if someone told us how bloody brilliant we are. And maybe if we spent a little less time showing everyone how good we are and a little more time actually trying to be good… we might all be a little better off.

Or it could just be me.