I'm back to this blog, partially because I am making a conscious effort to change the way I consume and participate in social media, specifically Facebook and Twitter. The problem, especially on FB, is that more often than not, the content annoys me, bums me out, or in some way makes me less happy than before I read it, and that certainly isn't the point. I have several issues with it, ranging from minor annoyances to major things that bother me, and many of them are things that I have done myself. But the biggest problem is that, all too often, social media serves simply as a platform for someone to cyber-scream "THIS IS WHAT I THINK OR AGREE WITH AND IT IS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT."
That pisses me off.
I fully realized this during two recent "events" (I use that term loosely) that were beaten to death over social media: the Duck Dynasty guy situation, and the knee-jerk reactions to Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman and his vitriolic post game "interview" with Erin Andrews after the NFC Championship game. What struck me as interesting in both cases, and ultimately problematic, is that there is no right or wrong view of either side of either issue, and yet everyone who strongly voiced an opinion ended up sounding like an ass. Let's cover the Duck Dynasty guy first. Were his comments ignorant, hateful, and stupid? Yup. Is he allowed to make those kind of comments? Of course he is. His supporters immediately and incorrectly invoked The First Amendment, which has absolutely nothing to do with his situation, since the government was not involved to any degree. Did the network have the right to suspend him? Of course they did. He made them look bad, and made them associated with a hateful bigot. Now, what can be debated is whether the brief sanctions were given only to generate publicity in hopes of juicing the ratings when he ultimately and inevitably returned to the airwaves, although thankfully that didn't happen.
My issue is that there was no wiggle room in anyone's stance. Everyone yelling and screaming on both sides felt they were ABSOLUTELY RIGHT and that there was no gray area, no possible other position. And there's tons of that kind of thing on Facebook and Twitter now. Much of it is entirely pointless. Nobody is going to change their religious, political, or sports team affiliations based on somebody else's posts. After the 2012 election I pledged to myself to just not post anything political anymore, because it is pointless. Most social media political posts are the internet equivalent of waving something around and shouting about it because you agree with it. Which doesn't do any good for anybody, other than generating completely hollow social media "likes" or "favorites."
Richard Sherman's behavior was the most recent example of this kind of thing. Personally, I thought he was practically foaming at the mouth and came off like a dangerous person. I was legitimately fearful for Erin Andrews' safety as she tried to talk to him. His defenders immediately and vociferously jumped to his side, discussing how he was "in the heat of the moment" and how he must be smarter than most people because he was a communications major at Stanford. But doesn't this mean that he should have been smart enough to realize exactly how poorly he would be viewed by millions of people? Predictably, people far on the other side immediately resorted to racially-charged name calling and insults. I didn't like his act. I thought he came off like a pompous jerk. I'm also fairly certain that that was absolutely his intention. He is a pompous jerk, and he is building that brand for himself. His team is heading to the Super Bowl, and literally the only player on his squad that anyone seems to be talking about now is him. And that is exactly what he wanted. But nobody is discussing that, they are just fighting over whether what he did was acceptable or not.
So that's where I stand. I'm not talking or posting about politics or religion, and I'm even going to cut back on posting about sports, because all I'm doing is flag-waving for my teams. Sometimes I won't be able to help it, or I just won't care (WORLD CHAMPIONS!). But I'm going to try to get back to using social media for what it does best: sharing pictures and updates about people's kids, funny photos and videos of animals, and pretty Instagram shots of food.
