A.J. Brown, reminding us of a time when social media nonsense was fun and not dangerous

It would be nice if we could frequently have fun on social media like A.J. Brown did on Friday. If people were responsible, we could throw random thoughts out and have ironic detailed conversations about the legitimacy of them. But it’s 2022, all fun can, and eventually will, be taken the wrong way.

Brown tweeted out something random, which he would eventually blame on his girlfriend. Brown posted that he learned a new fact about the weather. When the forecast for the day is a 50 percent chance of rain, that means that 50 percent of the city is going to experience rain, not that it’s 50/50 on whether or not it’s going to rain at all. Brown punctuated this discovery with a mind blown emoji.

It would be worthy of three of those emojis if he was actually correct. Brown, his girlfriend, the YouTube video or social media post inside of a frame that makes it look official, however the blame pie should be sliced for the distribution of this misinformation, all forgot that the television meteorologist always says, “percent chance of rain, or sleet, snow.” It’s the same with morning drive radio. I can still hear the Tom Joyner Morning Show gearing up as Wanda Wells finishes her news update with the weather.

Brown is 24 years old. Does he rely on a news broadcast? Or, as a professional football player on the go, does he simply check his notifications to see what the weather is supposed to be for the day? I’m a cord cutter, so I don’t have the TV on in the morning. Before I get dressed I just type in the first few letters of the weather website that I use into my phone browser, tap it, and up comes the local weather with the temp and a symbol that could be cloud sun or precipitation. If I tap the daily or hourly tab, near the bottom shows a raindrop next to a percentage with no further explanation. If that’s how you’ve checked the weather for most of your life, maybe you don’t recall Al Roker sending it to the local meteorologists to inform commuters of the percent chance of rain.

His mentions of course were flooded (I’m here all week, tip your bartenders), with users both saying he’s wrong and egging on the conversation. Brown then began to have some fun with the discussion for the next few minutes. He requested someone tag a meteorologist and some eventually jumped in to debunk his new theory. Those responses came after he squirted it with one more dash of lighter fluid on the conversation for both amusement and distancing himself from the conversation.

This is how social media was supposed to be. At times, certainly a place to find information that people may not have thought to look for by themselves. Other times though, a place to get people involved in meaningless conversations that waste everyone’s time. Then came the Tea Party and those damn Beyoncé illuminati YouTube videos, and now we can’t have fun on Al Gore’s internet anymore. These days, white-supremacist message boards turned the OK symbol in to a gesture that signals a support for their cause. Freshman year of college, a friend of mine used to hold that symbol by his thigh not to support the Aryan race, but just to see how many people he could trick into looking where he wanted them to.

Even Brown messing with people on the internet had to turn into a disgruntled Titans fan demanding that he stay off social media because he’s going from “villain,” to “super villain.” Sir Tennessee Oilers Inaugural Season Avi, if your fans hadn’t bothered Brown after the trade, he probably would’ve shown up to that kids camp. Instead, they learned a lesson that they’re supposed to learn in school, one person goes too far now the fun is ruined for everyone.

It would be nice if there was a space just to throw random thoughts at people for their reactions, but it’s just not that way. People either take the nonsense too seriously and it becomes their illuminati conspiracy, or they get angry and bother people that mean no harm. Thanks for the brief memory of when we could have silly conversations with strangers in peace A.J. Brown, even if you did blame your mind-blowing discovery on your girlfriend.