I originally wrote a long blog post about why I'm stepping way the hell away from Facebook for a while. Mostly, that post had a list of questions about what refusing to vote in elections accomplishes ... or whether people honestly assume that just because someone holds an opinion on an issue that's become part of the national discourse, that person is just part of the "sheeple" being told what they should think ... or what people who think that news stories about injustices happening to minorities are just manufactured bullshit meant to keep us divided do if they see such an injustice happening in front of them.
But then I realized my whole point can be summed up like this: Facebook is about 80 percent a hybrid of the worst parts of Jerry Springer and 24-hour news channels screaming out of a little flat glowing screen at me. This 80 percent of Facebook is a world where reason does not exist,where otherwise very sweet people scream at and make accusations about each other and stir shit like they're making a roux. The other 20 percent is cats and funny shit and keeping up with friends and local events, and that's the only reason I haven't closed down my account altogether. That 20 percent gives me some sane answers to the questions I saved from the original draft of this blog post:
What do people talk about other than what boils down to Culture Wars? Republican vs. Democrat, black vs. white, gay vs. straight, citizen vs. immigrant, radical vs. moderate, fire-and-brimstone Christians vs. salvation-and-grace Christians, people of faith vs. atheists? Because lately, that's all I see on Facebook. The divisions that may or may not have been invented by some mysterious "they" and are certainly being fed by human nature, or human nature + technology. The divisions people complain about and yet can't stop talking about, apparently. People do still view themselves and each other as whole beings and not stacks of labels, don't they? Do people still discuss things like literature, art, going fishing, traveling, recipes, children, pets, movies, life, death, dreams, love, what they had for breakfast, what this human life is like? Is there an app for that?
Basically, damn, Facebookians, stop all the yelling. I don't want to hear about why the federal government, the military, either major political party, the patriarchy or Jesus is either out to get me or my only hope. I want to hear about you. I want to know who you are, where you've been, how you got to where you are, what you love, what you want, what you dream about, what you've overcome, what you struggle with, what your favorite song or painting or movie or sculpture or outfit or moment is. I hate the current state of public discourse, based on fear and misinformation and rage and as many different sets of "facts" as there are people. But I love you, Facebookians. I love you as people. The labels we wrap ourselves in are mummy bandages that hide us from each other, from the world, and even from ourselves. Take off the wrappings before you forget what you look like under there.
I clearly have a love-hate relationship with the thing, too (and as a former whore, I appreciate your post-script). Oddly, the two things that get under my skin the most are screaming fanaticism on one hand, and apathy on the other. People are panicking about things in the realms of politics and society that have been proven false, and once whatever they're panicking about is over, they typically don't say, "Oh, I was wrong, turns out that was nothing" -- they find the next big conspiracy theory to panic over. And then I see people who were proud to tell me that they didn't vote now calling for recall elections and complaining about whoever's in office, and the willful ... I don't even know what you call that because it's not ignorance, it's the refusal to even attempt to solve a problem and then continuing to wail about the problem ... whatever you want to call it, it confuses me and makes me sad and makes no sense to me.
ReplyDeleteAnd perhaps because a good chunk of my friends are politically active, politically inactive but very angry about politics, radicals, anarchists and social justice types, so much of what I see is Jade Helm/Obama/same-sex marriage/war on Christianity/race wars are starting/none of this is real it's all a media ruse-type stuff, and I can't deal with it in such high doses anymore. I like talking to my friends about day-to-day stuff. There are people I don't know well who I would like to know better, but it's hard to get them off the "PANIC FEAR EVIL EVERYWHERE" ledge long enough to ask them how their day is going. I was raised in a household run by fear -- I joke with my parents that with their home's metal roof, they live inside a tinfoil hat -- and when I see it running rampant it makes me both sad and uncomfortable.
But I love getting to actually hear how people's days are going, to find out what they think is important or funny, what it is they love, what makes up their lives. I love being able to play Scrabble with my lifelong brother-friend who lives in New York. But every once in a while I revert to my assertion that the Internet is basically a large repository of cats, porn and outrage. :-)
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ReplyDeleteO she who lives by alchemy,
I see all that you do. I wonder, Is it
Weimar, 1931? I am pissed off at and sorry for the conspiracy
believers, they are so fear-ridden. A few of them I have seen be
reduced to one episode of bat-shit craziness a year, which is an
improvement over following every fear that comes along. Although not
all porn is violence towards women, enough of it is and the increase
in the level of violence is frightening, but I think it only reflects
the general escalation of violence, rudeness, and the outrage you
spoke of. As I said before, I just try to counter it by showing what
a conversation looks like. As I also said, this is strenuous and
draining.
Right now, the evilness of the internet
is a reflecting of the evil in society. I fear that we have only
begun to see the ills that this technology can inflict in its unique
manner, spreading hate and poison and instant REWARD for being
hateful. Every Like your hateful post receives is like rats rewarded
with a food pellet for their behavior.