Ukraine… Where does everyone always go?

For the past 3 weeks, all I could see on my Tiktok for-you page was Ukraine. Starting from the change of profiles to yellow and blue to edits of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, it was all I could see…Until I didn’t. Now, when I scroll I see almost nothing about Ukraine. Of course, from time to time I see updates, but really, everyone seemed to have moved on with their lives. Once again, it seemed like everyone had forgotten, almost like the war was a trendy topic to dwell on for a week, then move on from. 

Of course, it's not a secret that #prayforUkraine is one of the many examples of what happens on the daily. During the age of constant posting and performative activism, it almost seems like everything is turned into a trend. Whether it be #stopasianhate, #BLM, or #prayforukraine, everyone does eventually move on. After a while, social media simply stops caring. Maybe for a solid month or two everyone on social media fights for black lives matter, and maybe for a few weeks, people decide that Asian lives matter too. Then, for a week, social media is outraged with the fact that there is a war in Ukraine. However, the cold hard truth is that social media always moves on to the next big thing. 

In fact, it's quite a hard concept to grasp, because no one really decides to move on nor do people completely stop caring. Social media’s nature is simply fast-paced. I’ll admit, as I saw less and less of it on my Instagram feed and TikTok fyp, I gradually stopped thinking about it so often too. It’s not that I stopped caring or forgot that there was a war in Ukraine, it just gradually came to mind, less and less. Over the past few days, as I reflected on what this meant and I asked myself, “Does this make me a bad person?” 

Logically, isn’t it natural to care and think more about the topics you constantly see everywhere? Isn’t it obviously going to slip out of your mind if you see it less and less? Am I a terrible person for not consistently caring? 

The reality is, I’m not a bad person for this and you're not either. There's a fine line between performative activism and naturally shifting focus to recent events. If someone actively posted for Ukraine merely to look good on social media, but stopped simply because they noticed that Ukraine is not gaining as much traction, that's more problematic as it would clearly fall under the category of performative activism. However, I’ve come to the realization that most people, just like me, tend to naturally shift focus on recent events. Honestly, we wouldn’t be human if we didn't. New things, events, and topics interest us. 

Does this mean we should find comfort in moving on from significant issues because it's natural for us humans and social media to gain and lose interest in a fast-paced manner? Not

necessarily. Matters such as the Ukraine war are still extremely relevant and crucial to support if you have the ability to, much like advocating for the end of Asian and African American discrimination We should urge eachother to continue caring, even when your for-you-pages and Instagram pages seemed to move on to the next big thing. However, you shouldn't beat yourself up because you've gotten swept up under the fast-paced nature of social media. It’s natural and inevitable.