The Facebook Game

Recently I’ve been playing the Facebook Game. I’d scroll through my newsfeed and see how long it takes before I see something incredibly stupid or arrogant or just plain hateful. It never takes long, which is sad because I’m talking about friends and family. I know they don't mean to be hateful, arrogant, or hurtful; they just don't think through what they're saying but I can't point that out to them because, well, I've been pointing it out for years with no change so I don’t see a point in continuing. Wait, doesn't that suggest that they do mean to be willfully ignorant and arrogant? Doesn’t that mean they don’t care whose feelings they hurt? I'm sad now.

It was for this reason that I left Facebook a few months ago. One thing I’ve learned from my hiatus was that staying off Facebook for a few months gives you a good idea which of your friends really has an interest in you and what you have to say.

I missed Facebook so I put everyone in the Acquaintances folder except those who had shown an interest in hearing from me. Now I post to just those people. Then I took everyone on my Friends list out of my newsfeed except the few who aren't going to post something to make me cry out of hurt feelings or sheer frustration. Of course, I care about those people so I hate to miss if they post about something important like a problem or illness in their family or they want to share some joy or accomplishment. To me, that’s the purpose of Facebook. So once-in-a-while I'll pop over to someone's page, scroll through quickly, and hope not to see something too hurtful. So much for *hope*. :(

I suppose you might say that those people might feel the same about the things I post. Good point. I'm not going to claim that everything I post is logical or true. It is to the best of my knowledge but I could be wrong which is why I've asked again and again for such to be pointed out. I'm not going to be angry if someone shows me I'm wrong. I want to know when I’m wrong. Here is a guide for responding:

Unacceptable: "your a dum ass this stupid".

Unacceptable: ::scrolling by while getting offended, angry, hurt, or such; and then fuming or fussing to yourself or others about what a dum ass [sic] I am::

Acceptable: "I don't agree. Have you seen this report? From what I've read___________________________." My response to that might possibly be that I have read that report and we can discuss why we have such differing views of the same information. On the other hand, I might say, "No, I haven't seen that. I’ll go read it and get back with you." and then check that report and do a little more research and thought before responding in an equally polite and respectful manner. If things progress as they should between intelligent people, a conversation would ensue that would be thoughtful and interesting. Maybe others would join in with their well-reasoned comments and information. Someone may be swayed to change his or her mind. Or not. At least the topic was discussed in a reasonable and respectful manner.

Bottom line: It’s okay to disagree; it’s not okay to be disrespectful. 

I *want* to know if I'm wrong so I’ve assumed this was true for everyone else. Sadly, I’ve reached the conclusion that most people don’t want to hear anything that conflicts with their baseless opinion. It’s usually not even something they’ve thought about and typed an opinion. Usually, it’s those memes that go around that rudely express an opinion and tell you to keep scrolling if you don’t agree because they don’t care who they offend. It’s sad, really. Because I’d want to know the truth, many times I've tried to bring about a conversation about something someone posted but lately I’ve reached the realization that no matter what anyone tells them they'll continue to believe they're right. 

It absolutely amazes me to have talked about a thing, giving facts, logic, and my POV and asking for discussion on the matter only to have the same hurtful bullshit posted again by the same person. Ignoring *facts and logic* is bad enough but when I tell someone that their derogatory remarks about me and how what they’re saying isn’t even true, that it hurts me that they think such about me when they know and supposedly care about me, and they post the same tired old meme again, I just want to cry. Sometimes I do cry and I wonder what they’d think if they knew that. Oh. I already told them. :(

That is all. Earthchild has spoken and now awaits your comments.