Buy a Franchise
SPONSORED
When did social media become a battleground?
From Myspace Top 8s to strangers arguing via Facebook comments, the nature of social media has changed.
I fondly remember when social media was just becoming a thing when I was in grad school. I was an early adopter of Friendster and MySpace. I loved changing my sparkly background and song that played on my MySpace page. I loved indiscriminately changing my Top 8, scanning photos (with a SCANNER) to post on my page and writing nonsense posts on my friends’ profiles.
Then came Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat (which I still haven’t quite figured out) and probably dozens of other social media sites that I haven’t even heard of yet.
Over the years, I went from dedicated Facebooker, with multiple posts per day (including albums of photos documenting just about every single thing I did each day), to a once-a-week poster. Why?
Well, part of the answer is that I’ve grown up and no longer feel like I need to broadcast my every move to 1,000 people who I know in varying degrees ranging from “husband” to “person I literally met once, couldn’t pick out of a lineup and unfollowed years ago.”
I suppose I’ve shied away from Facebook in general because of the content that surfaces each day. If it isn’t someone ignorantly arguing with a stranger that has an opposing viewpoint, it’s someone posting a link to a GoFundMe campaign or a video of a neglected animal in need of adoption or surgery that its owner can’t afford.
To be clear, I don’t have any issue with people having an opposing viewpoint to my own. The problem for me, particularly in the last six months, has been people’s disrespectful, baseless arguments that they push on other people – often times strangers. To support their claims, people use links to articles on click-bait websites with domain names like xyzinternet.com and call it facts. To me, it seems like a huge waste of time to try to change someone’s beliefs – and if you’re going to try, why does it have to get so ugly so quickly?
And at my age, and at this point in my life, I have a hard time being bombarded by ignorance and, honestly, by sad things, whether it’s an injured dog or breaking news of yet another Chicago murder. I don’t want to avoid the news, but I also don’t want to be immersed in heavy, serious topics every time I want a five-minute break to see what my friends are up to.
What happened to the bumper sticker app? Or innocent fun, like poking? Until I figure this out, I guess I’ll just stick to posting pictures of my healthy, happy, cute dog.
Don’t Miss the Next Big Franchise Story
Sign up for the 1851 Franchise newsletter to get our biggest stories before everyone else
By signing up, you agree to our user agreement (including class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and acknowledge our privacy policy.
About the Author
LAUREN MOORMAN
FollowLauren has more than 12 years of experience in public relations, social media and content production. She has managed internal and external communication to deliver impactful business results for brands in the hospitality, retail, education and e-commerce sectors.
Lauren has a Master of Arts in Communication and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations and Spanish from Illinois State University. In her spare time, Lauren enjoys reading, traveling and spending time with her husband, son and dog.
