Anymore, I see Facebook as a microcosm of the Internet—which
ever stories are big on NYTimes.com or Reddit inevitably show up on Facebook.
Some of this is because I follow several pages. Some of it is because friends
and relatives will share stories about what happened in Gaza in the past week
or a thoughtful editorial about the Hobby Lobby decision.
And sometimes what people share is smart-asses political
commentary or “turn your status this color because” links. Most of my friends
share my political sensibilities, so I often like what they post—for real and
with mouse-clicks. But in general I try not to re-share most of it even if I
agree with it. Why is that? For one, I don’t like having arguments on the
Internet. I don’t like having arguments, period. I’ve said in the past that I’m
only willing to argue if someone is paying me to do it. For another thing, I
think that discourse online gets, for lack of a better phrase, flattened. There
are no nuances; no tone and no verbal or facial cues that would let you see how
the author of a comment felt (angry, sarcastic, unsure.) As a result, everyone
sounds more strident online than they would in real life.
This is not new—in 2000 I got a flaming e-mail from my boss
because I asked the staff what kind of sodas I should order without consulting
her first. If she’d delivered the same rebuke in person it wouldn’t have stung
nearly as much. Because e-mail has no tone, some things come out sharper than
you intend. The same thing is true of Facebook or Reddit posts.
The other main reason I don’t often repost the political
stuff is that I believe that with a few exceptions*, posting something on
Facebook doesn’t actually entail doing something to further the cause you want
to support. It makes you feel good—especially when your friends like it. But it doesn’t make Net Neutrality
any more likely and it doesn’t convince your Republican relatives of the error
of their ways. I am skeptical to what extent people can change each
other’s minds about these things, but I’ve seen it happen, so I know it’s
possible. But I’m pretty sure it took more than a snarky Facebook post to
change my conservative, Catholic, Ex-Army Uncle’s mind about gay marriage (for
example.)
So, this may be a little extreme, but I don’t generally
repost political memes, because that would make me feel I was actually doing
something about the problem/issue in question and I’m not. Yes, I suppose you
could argue that I was raising awareness of an issue, but if said issue is all
over the Internet and 3 people from my group of friends have shared it, what am
I adding to the conversation? Do I really think my conservative cousins from GA
are suddenly going to start caring about Net Neutrality because I posted it?
So while I agree that Hobby Lobby is hypocritical for
investing in birth control while denying it to their staff, and that the number
of shootings we’ve had since the school shooting in Connecticut is disgusting,
and that Israel should stop killing people in Gaza, and states should stop making it so hard to
get an abortion if you need one, I’m not going to repost. We all know the same
people—so I’m not adding to the discussion.
*share this to show you stand with rape victim x/Trayvon
Martin are exceptions in my mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment