We Are the Ones

 Over the more recent years, many of us have been participants in social media.  Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or whatever may float one’s boat, many of us take part in one or more of these social get-togethers.  I myself do only Facebook.  I know that platform is quickly becoming an “old person’s” platform, but I don’t care…I’m an old person.  And, I’d rather not have to be conjuring up the different platforms daily to see who I might miss or who may have tried to contact me.  One does nicely for me, thank you.

Yes, I also message on Facebook.  Yes, I text on my phone.  Yes, I email sometimes.  And I even make the occasional audio phone call, surprise, surprise !!  It’s enough for me, and on some days, it’s even a bit too much so I just ignore one or more of them.

Social media has received a lot of vitriol, Congressional investigations, lawsuits, and other assorted criticisms lately.  Some of it, I suppose, is merited.  Some is not, I would think.  Yes, algorithms steer one to places where one may not be edified appropriately.  Yes, children can be especially vulnerable.  I believe, however, that in at least some of these cases, one makes one’s own bed (so to speak) by leading the algorithm, purposely or not, to believe one really wants to see the stuff that’s presented.  And insofar as children are concerned, most kids have parents who are supposed to look out for their welfare, including where they go and what they do online. That old adage of “garbage in…garbage out” certainly applies here. 

YouTube is a great example of that adage.  You want to see police chase videos?  Just click on a couple of them and 138 more will show up on your page waiting for you to click on them.  Want to see old fashioned four-part acappella harmony hymn singing?  Just find a couple of them and click on them.  You’ll get a whole drawer full of similar videos to choose from.  Want to see videos of judges getting angry in a courtroom?  Click on a few and see what happens to your feed.  Like railroad videos?  You know the drill…just click on a few of them and lo and behold, about 353 more show up.

But one of the best things about social media, and I AM talking Facebook here, since that’s the only one of these kinds of things I use, is that one can be in contact with friends and relatives who are physically far away, but on line are as near as one’s phone or laptop.  We have the amazing ability to laugh, cry, celebrate, pray with, be concerned about, and generally take part in a friend or loved-one’s life to the extent that they will allow us to do so through posts, photos, memes, and messages.

I have several Facebook friends and relatives that I will, in all probability, never physically see again in my lifetime.  I cherish those relationships, however, almost as much as those relationships borne out of physical proximity to one-another.  Through social media, I have both given and received comfort, advice, counsel, news, and whatever else that can be transmitted through the written word or photos.  I have walked with dear friends that I hadn’t seen in decades as they bravely fought…then succumbed to terminal illness.  I have received great advice in life and living from those I love through social media.  I have shared celebrations, weddings, children, birthdays, tears of joy as well as sorrow, and a host of other emotions and thoughts through the Internet.  I have followed individuals and families as they moved from one location to another, one job to another, one tragedy to another, one joy to another.

Just as is with anything else, social media is neither right or wrong…neither good or bad.  It just is.  It’s what we do with it…how we use it (or abuse it) that is the thing.  Just like Fentanyl, it can be used for good…for comfort and healing…or for bad…for tragedy and death.  Social media is, in large part, what we make of it, in my humble opinion.

All too often, I think, we blame the thing for our societal ills and ailments rather than blame the ones who make the thing the way it is…ourselves.  We are quick to say, “Not my fault,” and point our ragged fingers at someone or something else rather than take a long, hard look at the part we played in making some thing like Facebook or YouTube what it is.

And while we’re pointing fingers, let’s also understand that we are the ones who have made government dysfunctional, chaotic and deeply in debt.  We are the ones who have made our schools reel under the weight of having to do so much more with our children than teaching the three R’s.  We are the ones who have made relationships with other humans toxic and abusive.  We are the ones who have made our society greedy and self-centered.  And we are the ones who have made our world an often difficult and dangerous place.  Yes, we are the ones.

We are also the ones who can take to heart the universal command to do unto others as we would have others do unto us.  We are the ones who can take to heart the universal command to love one-another.  We are the ones who can take to heart the universal admonition to be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.

The finger is pointing right at you, my friend.  For what reason is it pointing in your direction?

 

Blessings,