So 2016 has been something, right? Full of surprises. We’ve seen events bring us together, hold us in solidarity and divide us. Nowhere is that more evident than on social media. We’ve reacted together, grieved and remembered the inordinate amount of brilliant artists and celebrities that have passed away this year. From David Bowie to Prince to Darwyn Cooke to Alan Rickman to Muhammad Ali and the list goes on. Leonard Cohen just the other day. We’ve used our Facebook and Twitter to commune for these people we admired. We stood together this summer for the Olympics. And all this year we shared our diverse opinions on the presidential election.
Well, we’ve shared, discussed and often times berated our friends and family who dared to hold different beliefs. Not only that, but we’ve gotten really good at justifying our own views through easily shared facebook content, short videos, sound bites and articles that are extremely biased or even patently false.
The amount of times that I have seen a friend or relative share an article from a website that spells “news” with a “z” or pages that are entitled “Hillary for Prison 2016” is pretty concerning. It makes it difficult for people to step out of the muck of information- all presented as fact- and differentiate between what is and is not credibly sourced. It’s easy to spread information with your friends, but that information is definitely not always factual. I’ve seen these Facebook debates divide families. My family. I’ve been watching aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews delete each other on Facebook and then continue the fight over the phone. It may have even bleed into our plans to come together for the holidays as a family. And worse still it tells me that we weren’t as strong together as we thought if we let this overcome us so rapidly.
I say all of this not to rebuke social media as a whole and not to dissuade us from sharing our political opinions on social media. In fact, the way we’ve all shown such passion and vigor for the political process is great. I hope that we all stay as in tune as we’ve been over the course of the election.
With all of that being said, now that it’s over how about we all give everyone a few days to recover from our post election Facebook hangovers, take a deep breath and try to remember what we liked about each other before all of this. The political process hinges on compromise. Our ability to take our interests and the interests of those around us into account as well as that of the people who we may not agree with. To find mutual ground.
So, how about we try the same things online. Maybe take a second before we dump the vitriol and check to see ourselves in the other side for a moment. Better yet, how about we take a holiday from social media all together. Get back to our lives and let down our shoulders for a second. Maybe read a book or do a puzzle. Remember puzzles?
So how about it guys? How about we take five and come back fresh and rested. Sounds good to me. I’ll see you then.
