Love Notes – It’s OK to be indifferent

By Marcia Love

I try to stay off social media as much as I can because, nine times out of 10, I sign in only to leave with a greater sense that humanity is backsliding rather than progressing. I log off feeling irked or annoyed.
And last Thursday was no exception.
Naturally, someone was offended about something. The week before, it was men taking up too much room on subways that was the culprit. But this time around, it was something even more ridiculous.
Bread.
But not just any bread. His and her bread. The nerve of some companies!
Apparently Stonemill Bakehouse in Toronto is on the hot seat for creating separate loaves of bread geared specifically towards each gender. The loaf for women contains hemp and quinoa, and the loaf made specially for men has barley and rye. The company says the bread was created with the dietary needs of each gender in mind, but of course some consumers are convinced it’s sexist.
Why was this non-issue newsworthy? Because people love to be offended – now more so than ever. Or maybe it just seems that way because it’s so much easier to hear people rant about their pet peeves thanks to social media.
His and her bread is barely news, let alone news to get angry about. If you don’t like the product, don’t buy it.
Not every subject is something that needs to be made into a controversial issue. You don’t have to form an opinion on everything – especially not something as pointless as Stonemill Bakehouse’s “sexist bread.”
Within the realm of social media, there are countless thoughts posted demanding your opinion, asking you to agree or disagree. But not everything is urgent or important enough to require it.
It’s fine  to be impartial or indifferent to something, and that’s what a lot of people don’t get. There’s nothing wrong with saying, ‘I just don’t care.’
We love to be offended and demand accountability, but it’s not always worth it.
Does it really benefit anyone to share an opinion on the people who carry on loud phone conversations on the bus, or is it simply a way for one to vent his frustrations in the hopes that someone else out there might actually care? I’m leaning more towards the latter.
What happened to the good old days when having a bad waitress who was snarky and got your order wrong meant not leaving a tip and complaining about it with your girl friends after you leave the restaurant? You’d be over it by the time you reached the car. Instead we now have people who become so enraged they need to take to Facebook or Twitter immediately and make sure 500-plus people in cyberspace know just how awful their experience was.
Let go of the little things. No one needs to know about the jerk who cut you off on the drive to work this morning. The surgeon who accidentally left a needle inside of you – that’s something to gripe about. Katy Perry’s performance during the Super Bowl halftime show – that’s something everyone has a right to be outraged about.
Before you voice your frustrations, give it a rating out of 10. If it rates less than an eight, lock it away in your mind and grumble about it internally until you’re over it.

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