I have a beef with a meme. It is about problems, and has a score of variations, including #firstworldproblems, #whitepeopleproblems, #middleclassproblems, and #hipsterproblems. The first time I heard of such a meme was last year, when I mentioned on Twitter that I didn’t mind travelling for work but hated having to organize and file my expenses. It was a pretty run-of-the-mill tweet, an accounting of life’s annoying minutiae, typical of what gets broadcast every day on Twitter. Within seconds someone responded that this was “a #firstworldproblem.” The tone was peevish; it implied that complaining about filing expenses was an outrageous indulgence since it was evidence that I was employed, that I had an employer that would cover expenses for my work travel, and, on top of that, that I lived in a first-world country where there are employed people with solvent employers.
This is all true, of course—I’m lucky to be gainfully employed, and glad my work expenses do get covered. But where was this peevishness coming from? Was the finger-wagging coming from an unemployed person in a third-world country? I doubt it. And regardless of who said it, what was the point, exactly? That having a job means never getting to say there is something about your job that is irksome? This reminded me more than anything of a maddening aspect of my childhood: every complaint I made would be refuted with an absurd extreme. Examples:
“I don’t want to eat this broccoli! I don’t like broccoli.”
“You should be grateful you have something to eat. There are kids in the world with no food at all.”
“I hate wearing tie shoes!”
“There are kids in the world who don’t even have shoes.” (At least my mother never resorted to the “there are kids in the world WHO DON’T EVEN HAVE FEET” comeback.)
Sometimes, certainly, the #problems meme can be hilarious. (For a good time, scroll through #drunkgirlproblems.) Sometimes the upbraiding seems deserved; if I read a post that said, “Can’t decide whether to use my Rolex or my Piaget to time today’s yacht race” or “My favorite porkpie hat and shredded Ramones t-shirt are at the cleaners; have NOTHING to wear to the Grizzly Bear concert!” I might be tempted to shoot back #whitepeopleproblems or #brooklynhipsterproblems, too, but I probably wouldn’t. The fact is that the reason I like being on Twitter is precisely what this meme seems to scold about: hearing people air their little grievances and glories, because it’s a chance to get a genuine sense of what their lives are all about. If not, why would you want to even bother with social media? If you really don’t like it, just remember: there are people in the world who don’t even have computers. #twitterproblems
