If you're on Facebook, you might see that a lot of people have changed their profile pictures to cartoon characters. The actual status I first saw said: Change your profile picture to a cartoon of your childhood. The goal? To bring attention to the horrors of child abuse by not seeing a human face on FB until December 6th. Join the fight against child abuse. Copy and paste this in your status and ask your friends to do the same. A lot of my friends have done this and I see hundreds of cartoon characters on my wall. However ...
I've been called a sheep. People have said I've succumbed to peer pressure. Not me directly, but I'm using myself as an example. I've seen many posts and discussions saying this can't possibly help child abuse. I've seen people say things like, "I don't need to change my picture for people to know how much I care about children." I've even seen people say they're worried about the mass copyright infringements. Good grief, what's wrong with these people? What is this hurting? It's simply for awareness. Does anyone know what that word even means? Awareness: having knowledge of, being aware of a difference, being diligent or watchful. If seeing everyone's profile pics makes one person more inclined to help a charity when asked, then it's made a difference. If it makes one person think twice about raising a hand to a child, then it's made a difference. All you have to do is Google this and articles from all over the world appear. Will it help child abuse victims? I don't know, but it certainly isn't hurting them.
I had a crappy childhood. I have very few happy memories. I changed my profile pic not only to do the awareness thing, but also for ME. Seeing all the cartoon characters from my past brings back one of the few happy memories I have. I grew up in the 70s and cartoons were an escape for me. They still are and I still watch them, especially the old ones. In addition to the profile pictures, people have been posting clips from favorite cartoons. It's brought back some good memories for me. And believe me, I don't have many. So call me a sheep if you want. Say I'm a follower and a sucker of peer pressure. I don't care. Child abuse makes me sick. Just seeing the vast number of people who feel the same gives me hope in this dismal world.
I just wanted to add ...
ReplyDeleteDid the "Turn Your Profile Purple" thing make a difference for bullied gay kids? I don't know. I don't have stats, but I'd be pretty darn sure that there would be someone who said it did.
I didn't turn my profile purple that time, which tells me I'm not the sheep people say I am. It wasn't because I'm against gays. I have some awesome gay friends. I simply didn't do it that time, but obviously I feel very strongly about child abuse.
Maybe someone else knows -- were people ragging on those of you who did that, saying it wasn't going to make a difference? Even though I didn't change mine then, I wouldn't even DREAM about saying anything negative to those who did. In fact, I thought the support was awesome.
Well, now they're saying the whole thing was started by a bunch of pedophiles. Hmmm. Not sure if I believe that or not. There reasoning is that they figured if everyone had cartoons for profile pics, they could befriend kids easier. Doesn't make sense to me. People are so weird sometime. I saw a few people in a panic to change their picture back because they wanted to "protect their kids". Ummm, how is having YOUR picture up protecting your kids better than that of Mickey Mouse? I just don't get it.
ReplyDeleteI don't get a lot of this, but I do think calling attention to the evils of bullying and child abuse is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteI think cartoon characters can bring a smile to everyone. I say it can't hurt and maybe it will help.
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