My Altered Relationship with Social Media

Anyone who follows the news knows that there is currently a period of turmoil in the United States. There is much debate whether or not this turmoil is due to the current president, the inaction of congress, ISIS or numerous other factors.

As an author, I have tried to remain apolitical when it comes to social media. This is partly out of concern for alienating readers and partly out of the desire to keep my thoughts on various subjects private.

Then along came a reality show host that wanted to be president. It was amusing when he first announced his intentions. It then became less and less amusing as we watched his support grow and the collective IQ of potential voters shrink.

At first, I engaged in making fun of this man on social media, mostly because it was so easy to do. As time went on, however, people became very polarized and hateful of those that didn’t see things their way.

I dropped back and simply tried to encourage social media ‘friends’ to be accurate. I would grab the latest meme or politically motivated news story and go to Snopes or Politifact to make sure these posts were accurate and would point out when they were not. This was met with even more hate and vulgarity.

I was called, among other things, a ‘libtard’, ‘socialist’, ‘communist’ and various variations of phrases containing the ‘F’ word.

I don’t reveal it often, but I am a registered Republican. I voted in the Florida primary. My candidate has since dropped out of the race.

Ronald Reagan, the hero of the conservative movement, would not subscribe to the hate and bigotry that is currently being espoused by the candidate of his party. I’m convinced that his wife, Nancy, passed away just so she could stop him from spinning in his grave.

I can take the bashing for not supporting my party’s candidate and for potentially supporting a Libertarian or Democrat this time around. But then the events in Orlando happened.

I live a mere two hours from the sight of the slaughter at the Pulse night club. My daughter was in Orlando for a tour with her dance group, along with my wife, just a couple of weeks before it happened. We frequently travel there for vacation.

The senseless slaughter of 49 innocent people and the shooting of 53 others seems like an event that would be a tipping point in this country. I had every hope that it would. I was, however, unpleasantly surprised by social media.

For every post asking for prayers for the victims and their families and asking for good thoughts for the City of Orlando, there were ten posts that put the event in a political light.

Here are the facts as I see them:

• The man who perpetrated this event was an American citizen who was born in New York.
• The man was under suspicion of terrorist acts and had been investigated by the FBI.
• The man’s wife suspected that he was going to do something terrible.
• This man was able to legally buy a weapon capable of killing 49 people and wounding 53 others before he was stopped.

This last point is the one that gets all of the 2nd amendment people going. I repeatedly saw the “Guns don’t kill people…” nonsense posted everywhere. Guess what, it’s a bit more complicated. Guns and people kill other people. You can’t shoot someone without a gun and you can’t shoot a gun without a person to operate it. It’s a partnership gone bad.

I don’t advocate taking away guns. Even the Republican party leadership, however, is starting to recognize that people suspected of terrorism should maybe not be able to buy a weapon capable of killing 49 people and wounding 53 legally.

Is there no compromise? Are we that set in our ways as Americans?

On platforms like Facebook and Twitter, everyone has an equal voice. No one is louder than the rest or more qualified to speak. This really shines through. When A judge’s reputation is impugned, everyone becomes an attorney. When a child falls into a gorilla enclosure, everyone becomes a parenting expert. Apparently, in the wake of this latest tragedy, we have bread a gaggle of constitutional and religious scholars that post their memes and their slogans and criticize anyone that disagrees with them. The criticism is not scholarly, however, it’s bigoted and filled with hate.

For this reason, my relationship with social media is changing. I will continue to stay the course with my blog and share my blog posts on the various social media outlets. I will continue to promote my books and seek to help and communicate with other authors. I will continue to post important events in the lives of my family along with pictures.

I will not, however, engage in political discussion any more than I have been. I’m sure there are those of you that don’t agree with me, but for my own sanity, this is what I’ve elected to do. I have stopped following those that spew hate that appears in my Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Because I respect the opinions of those that follow my blog and of the WordPress community in general, I will respond to comments that I receive on this post. If your intent, however, is to spew hate or condemn me as a person for my decision, I ask that you stop following my blog.