During our first October Her Campus meeting, all of those in attendance were given a dare and then asked to write about it and share with all of you. My dare was something that came very easily and naturally to me because I already do it all the time.
The Dare: Say your opinion for an entire day and note how people respond to it.
For those who know me, they know that I’m very opinionated. I will say how I feel (respectfully, of course), even if it is offensive or you might not like what I have to say. Since I usually do that face-to-face, I decided to take to mass communication to get my voice across to a bigger audience, Twitter being my choice of medium.
Most people refrain from posting their opinion on Facebook and Twitter because there is always someone out there looking to shoot down your statement, or come at you with a counterargument that no one really wants to hear about anyway. Instead of doing it just for one day, I did it for the remainder of the week. It was quite enlightening actually – most people probably knew only I was being facetious, but quite a few people took it personally and asked me if I was tweeting about them. While that wasn’t my goal, that just goes to show how people appreciate hearing something real on their timeline, as opposed to the people who constantly tweet pictures of their food or the people who always tweet quotes and claim them as their own (Such a pet-peeve of mine!!). It also shows how people know that it’d be super embarrassing to be the object of someone’s annoyed tweet.
My tweets weren’t sent with the purpose to offend; I aimed for comic relief. Sometimes, when you get through with the whiny tweets and the inspirational tweets, all you want is something to laugh at. When Ann Romney was a trending-topic for a few minutes earlier last week because people were tweeting about some of her comments, I tweeted about her horrendous wardrobe. If someone is tweeting about the hilarious, annoying things they see on the Internet or in real life, you can connect to them because it’s an original thought. You probably experience the same things or have the same thoughts as them, but don’t know how to say them. That’s what social media is for.
I decided to extend my dare past a day. I’ve been doing my dare every day since then and I love it. The beauty of Twitter is that you can tweet your opinion and ignore those who disagree or try to start something online. You can also protect your account if you just want to tweet how you feel and not have to deal with people who try to talk you out of voicing your opinion.
I strongly encourage you to voice your opinions, better yet I dare you to be you. Be heard and make a difference. Don’t let the fear of offending someone stop you from getting your voice across because if you do, someone somewhere will miss out on their comic relief of the day! I recommend following Ellen DeGeneres because she always makes me laugh. If you just want some humor about Towson or college in general, follow me!
I can promise you a funny tweet a day! Follow me @CydRen!