Not Social, Not Media

WARNING!! OLD CURMUDGEON RANT AHEAD!!

Back in the day (whatever day you want that to be), being social meant being with friends. We took opportunities to meet new people or to just be "out there" talking, laughing, even disagreeing with someone in the flesh. When we talked about media, we meant the newspaper, TV, radio, or even a video or audio tape. Later on that also meant some kind of disk. It was something tangible, real life, not virtual.

We didn't have our heads stuck in our phones or other devices. We were physically and mentally with other people when socializing. We didn't have a constant "feed of news", messages from people we never met, constant cyber bullying etc. (if someone was being bullied, it was to their face, we didn't hide behind our keyboards. (DISCLAIMER: bullying of ANY kind is unacceptable any time, anywhere, on any platform!))

We would read the news in print, sometimes even get our hands dirty in doing so. We would read specific sections, read people's letters to the editors and see other opinions. We would watch the news at specific times of the day, typically in the morning, then around dinner time, and once more before bed. The news wasn't always good news, but it was news, it wasn't the 24 hour opinion shit shows we have today.

Arguments weren't uncommon, but we could argue face to face or ear to ear. And although we might even insult each other, we knew who we were insulting. For the most part, we didn't rage at each other, call each other awful names or make inane threats if we didn't agree. We may have even listened to each other's points of view. We could talk, there was context and inflection and we also knew that at some point, we could either come to a compromise or just agree to disagree. We knew how to be social and how to go about treating our fellow humans. Of course there were exceptions to this as there have been throughout time.

Since the advent of Social Media, we've become this subset of human being. From my perspective, people think it's ok for everyone to have an opinion as long as it doesn't differ from theirs. No one has the right to think differently. If someone has a stance on something, be it political or other (we'll get back to political shortly), and you don't think the same as them, you're an idiot, or you only watch "fake news".

You can't argue over social media successfully. No one really reads your response carefully or takes your view into consideration. You can post articles that support your position, but so can your opposition. It doesn't mean anyone is right or wrong, it just means there are more people that agree with either side of the situation and can spin the facts to meet whatever narrative they're pushing.

In my opinion, social media really "jumped the shark" (that's right, I used a Happy Days reference, if you don't get it go ask a boomer) when we started using it to argue about politics. Notice I didn't write to "discuss" politics, there are no discussions, just arguments. It's comical watching my feed sometimes because I have almost as many friends on either side of the political spectrum. I see someone happily posting something in favor of one political position, then I see someone from the other side very angry about that same post or piece of information. They both have arguments as to why the information being posted is good or bad depending on which position they favor. There's very little to no in between. No one wants to bend or see the good/bad that can come from it, or heaven forbid support something that their party doesn't support period. It's become very black and white (no pun intended but it does seem somewhat appropriate) and very contentious. If you don't believe the way I do, then:

A. You're not a true American

B. You don't love your country

C. You don't care about your fellow Americans

D. You don't appreciate the freedom our soldiers fought and sacrificed for

E. You are a racist

F. You don't want to see America move forward and be better

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. And you know as well as I do that it is absolute BS. Yes I have some very strong feelings about who I vote for and why. I also do my research, use my head and my G-d given common sense to figure out who I'd want to represent me as a political leader. Sometimes the choices totally suck, but they are the choices presented to us nonetheless. My choice is exactly that, my choice regardless of how others feel. Arguing with someone on social media about it is pointless.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes I get some excellent information from the articles that I read. And there are some legitimate "arguments" to be made from some of the people in my feed that actually do their homework and don't just argue emotionally. However, there are those that will post anything that feeds their narrative whether there are actual facts to support it or not. For goodness sake, just do a quick Google search before you post a meme you saw someone else post. I know, it's on the Internet so it must be true. Unsubstantiated memes just make you look uneducated, stubborn, and quite frankly stupid.

I'm one of THOSE guys who will fact check your meme and post the article indicating it's fake. I use lots of fact checking sites but usually start with snopes. Oh, I can already hear the moans, "Snopes leans politically to the left/right, they're never right!". Snopes, like the others, is a fact checking site. They have little to nothing to gain by favoring one way of leaning over another. I was using snopes long before social media became this cesspool of misinformation. In fact, if anyone bothers to read the snopes reviews, they'd see its about 50/50 where people say it's left or right leaning.

Snopes' job is to research articles, stories, urban legends, etc. . .and try to find the "FACTS". If they can't fully corroborate them they'll say so. Just because the facts don't fit your narrative doesn't mean it's wrong. There were plenty of times when i used snopes and wanted so badly to dispute something as not true, but couldn't. And guess what? The fact that the reviews don't swing one way or the other means that they are DOING THEIR JOB! You don't have to like it or believe it, but go ahead and dispute their claims with what you consider a more reputable fact checker and post it.

Many times, at the end of the day the party affiliation still wins even if the argument doesn't hold water. That doesn't necessarily mean the party they belong to either. I am one of those people that doesn't necessarily vote along party lines if I think the other party has the better candidate or supports issues that I also support. I don't know many others that do that, to me it's a matter of checks and balances.

Things have gotten so bad, I hate going into SM anymore. I can't stand going down the rabbit hole and it's become totally unwieldy, overly argumentative, and full of the same "arguments" every day. I do other things on SM that don't require my news feed. I try to spend less and less time there now, but sometimes its like a train wreck you just can't stop watching. It's really not good for our mental health particularly in these times when people are so consumed with things like politics and mask wearing.

It is not even close to being social, and it doesn't qualify as media. This of course is my opinion, you are certainly entitled to your own.

Rant over.