When did Facebook change from being a place you could go to find old friends and spy on your kids into a place to vent political positions and make hurtful statements?
Back when I first joined the Facebook community, my main goal was a watchful eye on my children when they were away at school. I enjoying seeing them enjoying themselves at parties and attempted to gauge how well things were going by their updated posts. From time to time, I would get a “Mom vibe” and call to see how things were going. It was healthy spying; a way to check in on my little ones from the shadows, just like I would do when they were little and asleep in their beds or peeking out the kitchen window while they played in the yard.
As a side benefit, I have been amazed at the number old friends and classmates I have reconnected with through Facebook. Each time I hear from someone I haven’t seen in ten, twenty, thirty and in some cases, more than forty years, it is cause for great celebration. Moving around as I have, I’ve made so many more friends than most folks can expect to in a lifetime. Being able resume relationships has been an incredible gift; a miracle of modern technology.
But, just as every black cloud has a silver lining, white fluffy clouds likewise seem to contain dark centers. In the past few years, Facebook has been a place of political slamming. I’m not talking about a healthy debate for the purpose of sharing ideas and exchanging information in respectful manner, (which is really best done over a glass of wine or scotch) but outward attacks on anyone whose opinion may differ in down-right mean-spirited, highly spun one-liners crafted with the finesse of a bitch-slap. Not only is this kind of thing unpleasant to read, but it can also be extremely hurtful and divisive.
I have recently become aware that some of my own family members’ profiles have blocked or been blocked by other family members because of these online disagreements. It saddens me to think that because of opposing political ideas, the choice has been made to excommunicate family members, preventing the sharing of the things we all hold so dearly in common; love of family, love of country and love of God. To coin an old saying, the baby has literally been thrown away with the bath water.
Through the years I’ve heard people complain that they don’t want to read each time a friend has been to Starbucks or where they went on vacation. I gotta say that I would much rather see those kinds of posts than the ugly, at times malicious posts from both liberals and conservatives. And, like any experience parent, I’m really not interested in who started it; I just want it to stop.