Facebook Makes Me Hate People
Do you know what you could never possibly win?
A fight on the internet. The truth is, everyone comes out looking bad.
Here's the thing about politics, everyone thinks they are right, but no one is. This is the reason that you'll rarely see me on Facebook anymore. My news feed looks like CNN and Fox are duking it out to see who can get the most shares. Why is this so upsetting? I'm not following/friends with either one of those networks on Facebook.
When I get on Facebook, I want to see what my friends are up to. I want to know who's engaged, who's having babies, who graduated from college, what you look like now, who landed an awesome new job, etc. I could really care less whether you're democrat or republican or socialist or whatever.
I'll admit that I occasionally stumble across a political article that completely changes my way of thinking or at least gives a new perspective on the issue. Maybe I don't agree with that person at all, but after reading that article, it's easier to see where they're coming from. Unfortunately, that constitutes a total of 1% of the articles that people post.
What are people posting? Posts that validate their feelings. The general line of thought when posting seems to be: "Wow this article agrees with absolutely everything I think about issue x. That means the author must be freaking brilliant. Let's plaster that sucker all over Facebook, so I can show my conservative and/or liberal friends just how wrong they are!"
That's when you get the arguments. Good heavens, those are embarrassing.
Commenter: Wow, that article is super racist and objectifies women.
Poster: Well we wouldn't have to objectify women, if they didn't dress like such sluts. Plus, I'm not racist. I totally have a black friend. I love black people.
Commenter: Having a black friend doesn't mean you're not racist. You can be nice to one black person, and still be an idiot towards others. This post should be removed. People who think like you shouldn't be allowed to post on Facebook.
Poster: It's a free country, and I have the right to say whatever I want! I'm sick of your comments. I will UNFRIEND you and anyone else who disagrees with me!!!
Clearly, both people arguing are right (at least in their heads), and no one is going to convince them otherwise. Both of them will certainly lose this argument. So what do they accomplish here? They both make each other feel bad, possibly ruin their friendship, and make everyone who sees that conversation pop up in their news feed officially think these two are nuts.
Do you want to know where your awesome articles will be appreciated on Facebook? In political Facebook groups. No, really! There are groups that designed specifically for sharing and arguing about political ideas. People in these groups will really appreciate you posting 30 times a day, and you can stop spamming everyone who just wants to seepictures of your new puppy how you're doing.
I had no idea how many friends of mine were racist, homophobic, crowd followers, impolite, stubborn, uninformed, so open-minded that their brain had fallen out, or extremists before spamming people's news feeds with political propaganda became trendy. I never comment, but I usually sit there in shock for a few minutes before asking myself, "Why am I still on Facebook?"
These are horrible (and probably incorrect) judgments to make about people, especially considering the fact that most of them are my friends/family/comrades from school. But I have such a hard time not thinking these things as I scroll down the page. Am I alone in this?
I only check my personal page about once a week now, just to make sure I'm not missing out on any major life events, and then I quickly click the little "x", because I just can't handle it. I know I'm far from perfect, and I'll be the first to admit my political opinions have evolved over the years. Someone may post an article that I don't agree with now, but will enthusiastically support in the future. But good crap, that is not why I am on Facebook!
If we're friends, I want to know how you're doing. When I log into Facebook, I could not care less about what that Zimmerman guy is up too. If I was interested, I'd go look it up on a proper news website.
A fight on the internet. The truth is, everyone comes out looking bad.
Here's the thing about politics, everyone thinks they are right, but no one is. This is the reason that you'll rarely see me on Facebook anymore. My news feed looks like CNN and Fox are duking it out to see who can get the most shares. Why is this so upsetting? I'm not following/friends with either one of those networks on Facebook.
When I get on Facebook, I want to see what my friends are up to. I want to know who's engaged, who's having babies, who graduated from college, what you look like now, who landed an awesome new job, etc. I could really care less whether you're democrat or republican or socialist or whatever.
I'll admit that I occasionally stumble across a political article that completely changes my way of thinking or at least gives a new perspective on the issue. Maybe I don't agree with that person at all, but after reading that article, it's easier to see where they're coming from. Unfortunately, that constitutes a total of 1% of the articles that people post.
What are people posting? Posts that validate their feelings. The general line of thought when posting seems to be: "Wow this article agrees with absolutely everything I think about issue x. That means the author must be freaking brilliant. Let's plaster that sucker all over Facebook, so I can show my conservative and/or liberal friends just how wrong they are!"
That's when you get the arguments. Good heavens, those are embarrassing.
Commenter: Wow, that article is super racist and objectifies women.
Poster: Well we wouldn't have to objectify women, if they didn't dress like such sluts. Plus, I'm not racist. I totally have a black friend. I love black people.
Commenter: Having a black friend doesn't mean you're not racist. You can be nice to one black person, and still be an idiot towards others. This post should be removed. People who think like you shouldn't be allowed to post on Facebook.
Poster: It's a free country, and I have the right to say whatever I want! I'm sick of your comments. I will UNFRIEND you and anyone else who disagrees with me!!!
Clearly, both people arguing are right (at least in their heads), and no one is going to convince them otherwise. Both of them will certainly lose this argument. So what do they accomplish here? They both make each other feel bad, possibly ruin their friendship, and make everyone who sees that conversation pop up in their news feed officially think these two are nuts.
Do you want to know where your awesome articles will be appreciated on Facebook? In political Facebook groups. No, really! There are groups that designed specifically for sharing and arguing about political ideas. People in these groups will really appreciate you posting 30 times a day, and you can stop spamming everyone who just wants to see
I had no idea how many friends of mine were racist, homophobic, crowd followers, impolite, stubborn, uninformed, so open-minded that their brain had fallen out, or extremists before spamming people's news feeds with political propaganda became trendy. I never comment, but I usually sit there in shock for a few minutes before asking myself, "Why am I still on Facebook?"
These are horrible (and probably incorrect) judgments to make about people, especially considering the fact that most of them are my friends/family/comrades from school. But I have such a hard time not thinking these things as I scroll down the page. Am I alone in this?
I only check my personal page about once a week now, just to make sure I'm not missing out on any major life events, and then I quickly click the little "x", because I just can't handle it. I know I'm far from perfect, and I'll be the first to admit my political opinions have evolved over the years. Someone may post an article that I don't agree with now, but will enthusiastically support in the future. But good crap, that is not why I am on Facebook!
If we're friends, I want to know how you're doing. When I log into Facebook, I could not care less about what that Zimmerman guy is up too. If I was interested, I'd go look it up on a proper news website.
.:Steps off Soapbox:.
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