Facebook: The Best of Times & The Worst of Times

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg may have envisioned an  innocuous platform for keeping friends in touch with other friends.   He may have predicted good-natured ribbing and commenting on hilarious  photos. Maybe he imagined  unrequited love between two people becoming a solid  relationship. But he couldn’t have fathomed some of the ugliness that appears  almost daily in any given newsfeed.

Could he?

Facebook has become a platform for political agendas
which lead to overwhelming arguments, offensive missives, and overuse of the
“block”and “unfriend” feature.  It  has become a place where people feel comfortable insulting another’s beliefs  whether religious, political or sexual.  It’s become a place where people feel righteous stating “this is my  page, I’ll say what I want” with  no regard for other people’s beliefs or lifestyles and whether they are offending a friend’s choice.   It’s become a place of bitterness, self-righteousness, offensiveness and  entitlement.  

There have always been arguments and disagreements regarding the  big two – politics and religion.   Inasmuch that it was considered tasteless to discuss either in a large
group setting.  Still is as a  matter of fact.  However, isn’t  Facebook a large group setting? 
Has anyone ever stopped to consider this before posting an insult or
belittling another person?  
 
Facebook was designed to keep people connected, feed  others alerts on your goings on, create a page for your art or your goods, and  generally be a happy place to visit.   But I’m thinking not so much anymore.  Yes, you can block offensive people and  filter the good from the bad or the “with whom I agree” from the ones that you  don’t.  But I need to put some  effort into that and I’m not sure it’s worth it.  It’s become a troubling place that I  need to take a break from quite often.

The comments I’ve read on a number of social media  sites flabbergasts me.  The  insensitivity and cruel nature of comments when it comes to a person’s photo or  a story is just astounding.  It is  hard for me to believe that people in this world can be so brutal, so  vicious.  Yet it’s all there in  black and white.  People’s true  colors are surfacing in ways that they might be able to hide in a face-to-face  conversation. 

I wouldn’t venture out into a dark alley in a bad neighborhood  intentionally.  Yet some days, when  I log in to Facebook, it seems that I am doing just that. Going out into a  littered, dirty pathway, anxious as to what I will encounter and fearful I will  involve myself in something unwholesome. 
 
I still like to keep touch with old friends and former  colleagues on Facebook.  I like  the silly banter, inspirational posts and motivating stories I can count on some  friends to post.  But these days I  visit Facebook with my armor intact and my mouse hovering over the hide feature  as I know I’ll use it before too long. 

And I wonder when it all changed.

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