Guilt Tripping For Reblogs And Why It's Not Cool

Suicide already is, unfortunately, something that affects a lot of people. It’s a tragic thing that is extremely relevant to a lot of people. That in itself is enough to catch your attention and gain sympathy.

It starts off being worded as an inevitable fact that’s made relevant. The numbers make it a concrete fact, and drive in how this isn’t just a vague statistic, although it does make it real. As a note, though, there isn’t a source or this fact.

The fact that they say that it’s a result of bullying is in itself vague and turn everything into an us vs them situation. It makes a villain and turns it into a victim vs aggressor situation where it’s so clearly black and white.

Underneath that is a ‘reblog if you care’. This leads to the implication that you must reblog, because if you don’t then clearly you are a horrible human being who has no sympathy or empathy or consideration for the aforementioned victims. It is challenging your morality, and says that in order to be considered a good person you must reblog this, or else you obviously don’t care.

The ‘always’ is just another way to attempt to guilt you into reblogging, saying that this person always does reblog to show that they care, setting it up as a comparison; if you care, you’d reblog the way I did, and if you don’t, then clearly I am a better person than you.

The sad pictures just are an attempt to pull at your heart and emotions, to make you try to sympathise with the cause some more.

And finally, my particular pet peeve: If you don’t reblog you have no heart. It won’t kill you to have this on your Tumblr.

This is a direct attack against your morals as a human being. It is an attack, and an accusation, saying you MUST reblog this or therefore you’re a heartless person. It invalidates any good that you might do and says that you have to prove yourself to be a good person.

It is an attack, and a very emotional one. It is a challenge, saying that you as a person are horrible. This plays off of your sense to want to be right and to want to do the right thing, and to want to be a good person and to be perceived to not be a horrible human being, and makes you feel as though you must reblog this in order to do that.

Considering that the topic at hand is suicide, it strikes me as particularly morbid that they say that it won’t kill you to have this on your blog.

Notice that there is a complete lack of sources or statistics. Only one fact is presented, and there is no way to tell whether or not it’s true, or if it’s just something that someone made up for the sake of getting notes.

Another thing that’s missing is a way to actually do some good. Regardless of how much you care or how much you don’t care, reblogging a post won’t do anything to help on the matter.

If the person who made this post, or anyone else for that matter, truly cared about doing good or preventing such tragedies from occurring, they would have included useful links such as credible sources, causes of teenage suicide, as is this case, the numbers of suicide prevention hotlines or websites, tips that people could use to stop bullying or ways that people could help, if they fear that someone is at risk. This post provides none of these.

In conclusion, reblogging this will in no way show that you care, because it literally does nothing and has absolutely no effect. It does, however, try to guilt you into reblogging by attacking your morals and playing off of your sympathies.