A few years back I made a social media post which rankled
one of my FB friends (who I had known in person long before FB), and rather than approach me about it, she
went to my boss who she knew. I was completely blindsided. I was (and remain) supremely angry with her.
The internet has evolved…but not for the better. A year or so ago, some other FB friend made
some horrible remarks. As a result some
random person from Canada decided to make a post on my FB page. That’s pretty intrusive. I unfriended her not because of him (I blocked him) but because of her.
Today, someone irate over another person’s social media post
spent time trolling the poster’s friends
and leading a serious, threatening attack on an innocent person. This crosses a line. You can argue , debate,
even name call (if you were raised that
way), but making threats against a person, friends, family, livelihood is
cowardly and thuggish.
The first lesson is one for all of us: we have too many
friends on FB (and other platforms) that we just don’t really know. It is okay
to say “no thanks” and not accept every request. I think LinkedIn is the world’s
center of all spam now and some distorted people consider it a dating site.
Social media is not a fun, little game anymore.
Second lesson, there is no right side of history if you
cross the line from argument to threats; at that point you are neither
progressive nor conservative, but simply a cretin.
Third, be careful about hero worshiping the activist du
jour ordained by the media/social media; this one dimensional portrait will
hide a sea of flaws and possibly malicious intent.
The world is full of opinions. You may or may not be proved
right in the long run. Try not to damage
yourself or others in the proving. Some words and actions cannot be undone, and
you may want to live in the same town for a few more years.
