Social Media can be a wonderful place for the exchange of ideas and learning about any common area of expression that one may have an interest in. I have found it useful to meet people who challenge my ideas of the universe and may cause me to rethink on occasion some of my own views. All too often tho of late, I have noticed that it has become more akin to a WWE cage match where everyone attacks everyone else and it is not the reasoned or most enlightened voices that stand out but who can insult or threaten in the most entertaining fashion.
People state their opinions on something or someone and then hit repeat ad nausea, putting down anyone who disagrees either loudly or cuttingly, not attacking the ideas espoused but the people expressing them. This is not only true, it seems, in political arenas and groups but spiritual ones as well. I have in the past weekend seen people’s names and addresses exposed (doxing), people insulted not even because of their ideas but because of their friends, their body-weight and their appearance. I have seen people threatened. I have seen people tell others whom to friend or unfriend based on opinions with the conclusion that there would be some onus of guilt by association imposed on those who did not comply.
I would like to believe that these incidences are in the minority and that most people want something better in their daily interaction than a 24/7 caged match yet find myself instead becoming more and more cynical. Can we do better? There is an almost drug-like high that comes from participating in the drama of the moment. Become part of any unruly mob and you can feel it. I can’t alter what anyone else does but I can forego this high for myself. I can do my best to avoid dramas (even if it means in any given moment that I don’t stick up for friends more than capable of defending themselves, something that has dragged me in more than once) and I will. I can use the media for the benefits it gives and hopefully avoid the drawbacks.
Contemplating the Earth by GAR
Reflections Through the Fire by GAR
Another Tower (Redux) by GAR