Sunday, November 26, 2017

LOVE IN THE TIME OF SOCIAL MEDIA


You might have probably heard of Gabriel García Márquez “Love in the Time of Cholera,” but what you probably not know is that in Spanish “Cólera” (the original word in the title) also means anger. The book follows the characters within the context of the cholera epidemic at the time and the anger destroying their lives.

Now, I am glad I don’t usually write contemporary romance (and when I said “contemporary” I’m not talking about after WWII, I’m talking about from 2010 forward) because humans have become an angry species, and Social Media is the petri dish where all the festering things wrong with us today incubate.

How am I supposed to write about two (usually young) people who must certainly live glued to their gadgets and are offended by the silliest things while there are hunger, poverty, human trafficking and a thousand other ugly things really happening but are none of their concern? You’ll rarely see an instance of homophobia in my books; lots of people write about that and use it as the conflict for their stories. So, I don’t see a reason to add to that; there are other situations (especially internal situations) available to keep any story interesting. Bad things exist, homophobia, racism, bigotry, but instead of being victims of those things, we need to move forward, beyond them because there is a moment when those things turn into the only prism you use to analyze reality and you sink into that mess really fast and bitterly.

We have turned into fragile, selfish creatures, obsessed with image and immediate fame. We ask the other person’s role in bed even before knowing their full name or birthdate. We judge people based on what they let us see on Social Media. We condemn people for being human and making mistakes. We allow those in power to distract us with bullshit while they use all their cunning to rob us blind, selling their lies as benefits (but for whom, them or us?).

Fiction needs to be anchored in reality; today’s reality is a sad one, an angry one, a petty one. This is why I write about the past (we made mistakes but it’s done so we cannot fuck it more) and the future (hoping somehow it becomes something better than today) because many real people of today (of all sexual persuasions) are very, very hard to love, and don’t want to be loved either: they want to be admired.

Of course, there are exceptions, but that’s exactly my point “cases that do not conform to a rule or generalization.” Isn’t it sad that the angry, easily offended people aren’t the actual exceptions?
I’m not going to blame technology. Social Media has not turned us into monsters; we did, using anonymity, hiding behind a keyboard, to spew all the nasty things we did not have the balls to say face-to-face to other human beings. To spread our insecurity, our lack of hope in a comment section as if it could cure us instead of trying to dig inside for our reasons to be so fucking angry all the time. 

Every so often you’ll see a comment section of anything (a song, a sad story, a joke, a movie trailer, a suicide note, a news report) without some dismissal, hatred, or mockery. When the only thing you could share with the world is negativity, the world is not the problem, you are. It’s perfectly normal to go through a bad time, a bad season, a bad year, but if you rather drown in the bad than trying to kick up to the surface, seeking positivity = you are the problem.

So, yeah, I don’t expect; I hope.

And I honestly hope there is something better ahead; that those born in this century get tired of the angriness of their fathers and work to unite the human race, guiding it to a brighter future.