I was a
long-time opponent of Facebook, decrying its trite and inconsequential
postings. ("I just sneezed very loudly." "I love a good kumquat." "Can't find my other sock.") But, when I joined during the summer of 2011,
as my daughter prepared to move to New York City for college, I discovered the
silver lining of reconnecting with old high school classmates, far-flung army
buddies, family located in other cities/states, and friends that live abroad. Thus, I became somewhat of a reluctant student
of the hackneyed way that trivial status updates were employed to broadcast
quotidian minutiae in a constant frenzy -- a veritable new discourse spawned in
the age of social media.
However, I
also soon learned that Facebook is a place where many persons share every bit
of political propaganda they can find, as if the success of their day (nay, their
hour!) rests on how many cornpone things and how much partisan spin-doctoring they
can "share."
Many individuals
that I like and genuinely care for hold near-vitriolic ideologies that both
disappoint and vex me. And there’s no
doubt they would be likewise disappointed and vexed with me if I peppered their
FB news-feed with my philosophies in the same aggressive manner they wield
their social media accounts. But, they are still my friends or my family, and I
still value them.
Alas,
we've increasingly slid into the era of the digital echo chamber. Everyone, it seems, wants only to surround
themselves with people that believe exactly as they do on polemic issues or
otherwise (i.e., a homogenized environment of groupthink). Down that road lies more cult than society.
I don't
desire an echo chamber of like-minded people who will chime in -- exclamation
marks at the ready -- with my political opinions ("YEAH!!!!!" "You go!!!!!") or
otherwise click the "like" button to indicate they support the same candidate
or special interest group. I don’t
require that rampant validation to have faith in my opinions.
A longtime
friend (and, when I say friend, I mean someone who has been my friend since
junior high school, regardless of the status of our online social media)
recently posted on his FB an invitation to unfriend him if you disagreed with
him on a certain issue. No
discussion. No give-and-take. Only the spirit of radical allegiance.
(First of
all, terminology is askew here, FB. "Unfriend" implies withholding or withdrawing of friendship, rather than
simply electing not to follow someone's social media account.)
I've
wrestled with this. My first thought was
to comply with his request. But, if I unfriended every person with whom I disagreed on one issue or another (or
every person that refused to see an issue as nuanced and complex rather than
binary), there would be precious little social in my social
media.
It is okay
to respect someone or have a healthy affection for them without requiring them to
line up on your side of the fence on every subject and scenario.
