I try to leave positive comments on blogs and even on Facebook when possible. These days comments can be a landmine that can hurt your heart and mind. We live in a time when everyone has a pulpit and something to say. Feedback is great but it can also be surprising. It hurts even more when a friend speaks from a place of fear and ignorance. Being online isn’t for sissies anymore that is for sure. Kindness I hope still means something but sometimes you aren’t sure if its the thing to do anymore. Read the comments at your own peril, if you dare.
Tag Archives: facebook
Unfriend/Unfollow, It Happens
There comes a time in everyone’s social media life where they must unfollow/unfriend people on various platforms. Facebook is one of those places where it is a chosen community of people you are connecting with and sometimes their posts can either be repetitive and sometimes offensive. Granted there no two people who agree with each other 100% of the time, and that is OK. It’s only when those people ramp up the rhetoric, whether it be political, religious or social commentary that can be very negative, that you have to make that decision on your connection status.
In America we are in the midst of an election campaign season where we will go to the polls in 2016 to elect a new president and other federal offices. Canada just completed that cycle recently and sometimes being on social media can be challenging when it comes to politics because it can be personal. It’s the constant barrage of posts that come from friends who post mean spirited things that can test your relationship status.
Religious and social commentary can be divisive too. We have all seen the issues such as faith, gender, orientation and the like that people fall on different sides of. To me it’s OK to disagree on some things, but you know it’s amazing to see the venom on your screen from people who you thought were reasonable and kind. It can be disappointing to see comments that are out there for the world to see and you wonder what is the source of their ire.
I know there are people who have unfollowed/unfriended me for various reasons and that is OK. Perhaps this is an opportunity for all of us to examine our friendships and who we are as individuals who have a right to feel the way they want to about all the stuff going on in the world. It is OK to be sad when your friendships change, that is life.
Then there are sports rivalries and that can be just as contentious as politics, religion and social issues. Especially on rivalry days.
Unfriending, Unfollowing, it happens and you have to move on. Sometimes you just have to cut ties.
Believe It Because It’s On Facebook
The Doobie Brothers once sang a song “What A Fool Believes”, and when it comes to Facebook it seems there are many of them including yours truly. One amazing thing about social media is how hoaxes spread like wildfire. All it takes is for someone with a devious side to post something that will be picked up by other users, and it just gets viral. I guess when you are just sitting there scrolling through your feed, anything that looks legit, becomes legit whether its true or not.
Fortunately for us all there are people who are vigilant to keep us from treading into the social darkness of someones wicked sense of humor. People who perpetrate such things should be ashamed of themselves but as PT Barnum once said there is a fool born every minute…sometimes every 30 seconds online.
My friends, don’t be foolish. Be smart about what you see and where you see it coming from. Don’t distribute anything that looks dubious and always be on guard. Enjoy the times you have online but be careful.
My Facebook Break Challenge
The one thing about the Facebook break is getting information I could get from there from various places I am connected with. Perhaps that is something that people who do social media consulting should advise is to keep your information in more than one place like your website, blog or Twitter. Some people aren’t on Facebook by choice and will not go on no matter how much you tell them they should. Providing information, everywhere is important to keep as many people in the know as possible.
A Social Ramble
I find that WordPress, Twitter and sometimes Tumblr are better places to be than Facebook. I don’t know what it is but I think Facebook can bring someone down. Sure there are tons of pet videos but that can’t be the only thing keeping someone there. Blogging seems to be a more open social environment for better discussion. I would so love to log out of Facebook but it keeps people coming back because of the connections you have there. Not everyone blogs so that is a problem. Maybe I just need to logout of Facebook for awhile. I would much rather blog, Tweet and Instagram anyway.
Comment or Friendship
I fear commenting on stuff a lot of times because I am left-of-center on many issues. Everyone has the right to their opinion but when yours goes against many of your friends it can become a problem. There are times I need to keep silent so that friendships can remain. I don’t know but I don’t have a lot of really tight friendships in this life so sometimes I have to keep silent.
Maybe I don’t fall for the lemming thing and I have chosen to think on my own. Maybe not having a great number of friends has freed me to form independent opinions on things which has informed me about the world in a deeper way. On Facebook and even Twitter there are debates of the day which has raised the volume of rhetoric and venom among people who have been life-long friends. Perhaps I choose to be different and the voice of what is fair, just, inclusive and loving.
So do I comment or choose friendship…that is a tough one.
The Tony Burgess Blog 