It's a strange world, filled with beautiful people doing exciting things in exotic locations - AND foul-mouthed people fulminating about politicians in coarse language.
It has mothers with carefully-posed children in immaculate outfits, celebrating their academic and athletic accomplishments - AND gloomy hints that the same mother is in dire need of LOTS of wine.
It has passionate partisan supporters making their case for their preferred politician using well-crafted logic - AND opponents whose idea of a rejoinder is "He's/She's a crook!" and "Hater! Racist! Phony Christian!". I'm still not clear on why politicians have to demonstrate their commitment to the principles of their faith - to the satisfaction of non-believers - only if they are Christian.
It has heartwarming stories and memes - and cute baby animal pictures - AND also half-naked women and fully-stupid men displaying their lack of Darwinian fitness.
It's a funny world for many who live obsessively on it. That number - who are addicted to monitoring it, to the point of pathology - appears across the spectrum of income, education, and race. The worst offenders - those who knowledge of the world is limited to what they see on Twitter - appear to need an intervention.
It USED to be primarily women who lived their lives obsessed with gossip, rumor, and poorly-sourced information. But, in the Day of Social Media, too many men are getting caught up in the frenzy to Get The Latest Word On The Subject.
Many, myself included, have come to accept that these media are impervious to logically stated arguments, links showing evidence of the truth of an argument, and clear reasoning based on fact. That work is CLEARLY negated by the person responding, "Your source is ------, therefore ALL that you say is wrong!" (this despite copious links to original text and official statements by the people involved), "You are a Racist, Hater, Homophobic", or worse, "Fascist!" - that last is the Universal Kill Shot. No evidence of the truth of these slurs must be shown, the sheer venom of the attack is proof.
In the wake of the failure of using Social Media to educate others, blogging, and more lengthy indie writing, become more important. The Social Media revolution has proven to be a failure (other than as it was originally meant to be, a way for related and acquainted people to update others on the changes in their lives).
Keep using Facebook, if you like, to update friends and family on your life's events.
Just don't waste time trying to get the revolution going using one of those platforms.
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