A new Lunar New Year video by the Facebook team has been released, sharing the message that we should stay close to our loved ones. This is courtesy of the social media website which allows us to add cousins that we hardly ever talk to in real life.
It was released on Facebook for Business, despite there being no ‘business’ aspect in a video about kids showing off how much fun they’re having on their personal Facebook walls.
It is a great video, full of sentiment and love and real life #firstworldcnyproblems, like well-meaning grandparents pressurizing young people to get married, and happily single people getting guilt-tripped into getting attached. The video is especially hilarious when a girl from Hong Kong tries to see how much food she can stack onto her grandfather’s already heaping rice bowl.
The annoying bit about this video is that although it is about spending time with the people who matter, it features young people constantly on their phones — updating their statuses with pictures and “#bestahmaever” — instead of actually spending time with their own ah mas. It’s a chilling reminder of what most Lunar New Year gatherings actually look like: a bunch of grouchy kids spending all their time editing Instagram photos instead of chatting with relatives they see once a year.
Sappy sentimental video aside, the caption says it best. We do need a reminder that yes, we’re with family, and no, we don’t actually have to tell anyone about it. Spending time with people does not include boasting about cute grandmas on Facebook; it’s about having real human interactions.
Perhaps it’s time we learnt that quality interactions don’t come with hashtags in front of them.