Voicing the Irresponsible

I was reminded today of the fruitlessness and pointless endeavor of debating on social media.

Three semesters ago, for a Sociology research paper, I decided to write about the effects of social media in our society.  Out of the many attributes-both positive and negative-that I found was the empowerment it has given to those whom before the rise of online social media really had none at all.

Social media is great.  I have reconnected with friends whom I never thought I would have without MySpace (back in the day) and now Facebook.  I have found a family I never thought I would meet because they were denied to me for over 30 years.  I have kept in touch with my brothers and sisters formed during my service to the military.  There are many great things about social media.

However, I have also been ensnared at times by the negative aspect of it as I found myself once more today.  The problem with online social media is it has given a platform for people to voice their opinions for a broader audience whom, before the internet, would never have been heard.  The irony is not lost on me that I am posting on the negativity about the internet by writing a blog on the internet.  

It is easy to engage in pointless arguments though on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever one uses as their social platform.  For myself, and I think for many others who engage in such debates, as a child I was pretty much voiceless.  No one really cared to listen to my opinions on things.  I was a follower.  I was told what to do by my peers and I did.  There was one friend in my life whom I could lead but otherwise it was pretty much me in the background.  With the internet came that empowerment to voice my thoughts and put them out there for the whole world to see.  There is no worries about being silenced nor any worries about being held accountable for what we say online.  There is only the typed word, the submit button, and then watch the drama fly.  

Perhaps without Facebook or Twitter or whatever, there would be many of us who would not be able to express our thoughts as though they were important.  Social media give us that self-entitled sense of importance.  We think we sound wise on Facebook but what we sound like are fools.

I have tried to redirect my postings in the last year.  At one time in the last two years my eyes became opened to the amount of time I was spending online commenting on one political or religious social issue after the other.  I would rant and rave and all the while I would think I was speaking the truth.  All the while I thought I was proving points.  What I did not realize was I was throwing mud at all who read my posts.  As my wife once told me, “You were slamming your d*ck on the table.”

Perhaps, in essence, Facebook is a place for meager people to slam their meager d*cks on the table and feel big about it.  What we fail to realize: no one wants to see our verbal appendage.

I have a good friend from high school on my Facebook list.  In the last year, I have been looking at her Facebook feed, studying it, and trying to emulate the positivity of it.  No, not everything she posts is necessarily positive.  There are hardships of life she will post; loss of a loved one, the struggles of a dear friend, but she is posting about life.  The importance of life with all its good and bad is what my friend posts.  I want to post that stuff.

At times I get sucked back into the political and religious banter that continues to be spewed from the cyber-mouths of my other friends.  I feel like Al Pacino in Godfather III being pulled back in.  I fall into that dirty pit of debate, get myself bloodied and dirtied until I finally come to my senses and climb back out.

Facebook is a great place to connect but it has seriously hindered real interactions between ourselves.  I just cannot imagine actually hanging out in the physical sense with some of my Facebook friends if all they will talk about is politics, social issues, and religious dogma.  I would walk out of that room.  Perhaps the world would become infinitely better if some of us would log out of Facebook and walk away from the computer.

Until next time…