SocialMedian.com Default User Icon

So, I signed up with SocialMedian.com and found that they had discovered the best way to get people to add a custom user icon.

I took one look at Oprah, above, and updated my icon seconds later.

SHUDDER.

I then had to shower immediately.

Mobile post sent by thepete using Utterz.  Replies.

So, my online pal PixelFish left a really cool reply about this post over on Utterz, so I thought I'd repost it (and my reply to her reply) here. Check it out:

I actually like Oprah for the most part, but yeah...wouldn't want that as my icon. (Just because it doesn't fit my mental image of myself.)

I have a friend whose blog gives everybody an icon automatically and randomly. She blogs a lot about racism, and so every user icon is a person of colour. (I got Book from Firefly, I think. He's awfully tiny so it's a wee bit hard to tell.) At first, I was annoyed because I wanted to change my avatar to match me, but then I started thinking about how the world related to me when they saw my words coming out of Book's mouth. How much had I relied unconciously on white privilege. How I could change my avatar most places to be whatever I wanted and how I shaped how people saw me on the net. So now I don't mind the icon....I found it thought-provoking, and I think it's helped me change a little bit of how I relate to other folks.

I thought that was really interesting and, really fascinating--I'd never once thought about how not being a minority on the web might change other netizens' opinions on me. Very thought provoking! However, I was (and am) concerned that people might think my post had something to do with race. It doesn't. So, here's my reply:

Very interesting point, for sure. It certainly wasn't the race angle I objected to (I'm not saying that's what you were suggesting, just being clear). I don't like Oprah just because she's one of the most powerful women in America and she seems to waste that power on making herself look cool. She gives away cars to her audience, and does it in a way that makes it clear she knows how awesome she is for doing it.

She opens a girls school in South Africa that ends up in the news for all the wrong reasons (here: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL0510385520071105 ), which is a shame, because I'd love to see her do more things like this, just so long as she does her homework beforehand (in other words, does the research, hires the right people, etc, so that stuff like this doesn't happen).

She's on the cover of every damn issue of her "O" magazine. Usually, it's worse than a comic book cover, too--it's just her posing. Like just her very image sells paper. She doesn't even bother to look like she's making an effort.

I remember reading something about her buying up a cable TV network with plans to name it the "Oprah Winfrey Network" aka OWN.

This makes me want to start a TV network called "Pete's Wonderful Network for Entertainment Delivery" aka "PWNED".

>_< And "wow," how "amazing" was it when she called out that writer guy who lied in and about his book.

Perhaps someone with her stature could speak out against the lies of a particular administration? I mean, whose lies will harm more people? Some guy who wrote a novel and pretended it was an autobiography? Or the lies of the leader of the free world?

This is why I hate Oprah. She has the power to do almost anything, yet she squanders it.

I *love* that an African-American woman is as powerful as she is. I hate what she does with that power.

So, to reiterate, I don't have any problem with black people who have power, just so long as they use it well. I don't have a problem with ANY person having power, just so long as they use it well (aka for the betterment of humanity).