#nomakeupselfie

As I sat on the bus to work on Wednesday morning, flicking through my phone, I was bamboozled as to why my newsfeed was littered with “selfies” of lasses with no makeup on, claiming to be making people aware of cancer. I failed to see the connection. I was already aware of cancer, and I was now aware of what a load of girls I knew looked like without make up, ie pale with small eyes (only joking, it was actually great girls showing off their natural beauty). It appeared at first sight as a fad, a friendly version of Neknomination that everyone could join in with, whilst simultaneously patting themselves on their own collective backs, showing their hundreds of social media mates just how brave and selfless they were in fighting cancer.

This sceptical sentiment appeared to be echoed by various individuals, who in turn challenged the participants, questioning their motives and querying what the point of it all was. Soon after, the “selfies” posted were accompanied with links on which to donate, and have apparently since helped to raise a million quid towards the cause. Very commendable. Although I do still feel as though the whole process is slightly tinged with self congratulatory vanity, it has to be said that if it’s raising money and awareness, then the ends certainly justifies the means.

This once again demonstrated the power of social media to raise awareness. However, in the grand scheme of things £1million is peanuts, and pales into insignificance when compared to money out there which could be used to fight cancer, along with hundreds of other life destroying illnesses. Take Vodafone for example, this one company has managed to dodge over £6billion worth of tax (or 16 years worth of “no makeup selfie” donations based on it’s initial rate over 24 hours). Imagine investing some of that in to cancer research, and into the hospitals treating those battling the disease. This is what we should be making people aware of, not asking poor people to donate their hard earned cash when there is literally billions and billions that are being essentially stolen from our society. We complain that people are dying premature deaths, either because of unaffordable treatment, lack of care, or not enough research, yet this is due to the greed of the likes of Boots, Starbucks, and Topshop. Social media should be used to raise awareness, and outrage, at this injustice. It should be used to embarrass the companies involved in tax avoidance, and force them into compliance.

Likewise, when the likes of Serco and G4S are siphoning million and millions out of the NHS, raising a million pound for cancer research seems rather superficial and trivial. We are contracting out NHS services to the same companies that proved themselves incompetent during the Olympic Games, the same companies that were found guilty of conning the country out of tens of millions of pounds through over charging for prisoner tagging, and the same companies that have shown a shocking disregard to human rights laws throughout the world. We’re sacrificing the services provided by the NHS in order to provide profits for these immoral companies.

Through the medium of Facebook and Twitter, we have a platform unlike any other available in history, from which to make people aware, and force change. If only the Facebook generation in this country could be mobilised to make a real positive change. However, I suspect many are too busy taking a picture of themselves in order to further their social lives to really care.