(REBLOGGED) Stop Praying for and Exploiting Disabled Children and Adults on Facebook

These posts really annoy me. They seem so insincere and they use the ‘guilt trap’ – trying to trick people into clicking “like” or “share” on the posts out of pity for the person in the image. The unfortunate thing is that they are also scams, as Carly explains…

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Stop praying for and exploiting disabled children and adults on Facebook. Posted: 10 Jan 2016 07:45 PM PST   “When you see photos, video clips etc with the line about “like = love” “ignore = hate” etc: Please be aware that the person who posted the picture probably has no ownership of the picture. Quite often pictures of people, especially children, with disabilities or visible difference are appropriated by heartless people who use the image to draw attention to their facebook page so they can become ‘(in)famous’. They do not do this because they are a caring person, they do it because they know that YOU are a caring person and will like something they have shared thus boosting traffic to their facebook page, where sometimes there are links to things you would never choose to be associated with. It is wrong on every level to share photos that are not yours to share. It is wrong to post photos that are not yours to post.” – Rose Quartz, disability activist I wrote about one like = one prayer slacktivism posts here in 2013. You know the posts. “don’t scroll without typing amen.” “if you woke up this morning and your thankful every day while being bless scroll down and type amen” “how many likes can she get?” “this baby still cute, scroll if you’re heartless” “ignore if you’re heartless” “keep scrolling if you’re heartless” “Ignore If You Have No Heart” One like = one prayer. In recent months, I’ve seen increasingly more one like = one prayer type posts on Facebook – featuring children and adults with Ichthyosis, and also people with various disabilities. (Image description: text of “NEW COMMANDMENT: Thou shalt not post pictures online that say 1 share = one prayer. Jesus hates that crap. God.”)(Source) It’s recently happened to Jack, Brenna, Evan and Steph (and many, many more). People are stealing photos and using them on Facebook pages and groups. Hell, I saw one ‘prayer group’, dedicated to sharing these photos, encouraging mindless scrolling and typing amen. What does this achieve? These posts don’t state or explain a diagnosis or aspects of disabilities (not that strangers need to know), humanise the person featured, nor, as Craig Wallace and Jax Brown told The Age, draw attention to any real issues people with disabilities face (like access and employment). Post continues on Carly’s website, which you can access by clicking on the title above, or her site name (Tune Into Radio Carly) above that. Check out her website, it’s really good.