I'm not sure whether the thought I am thinking now is well formed enough for me to explain it, but I'm going to give it a try. I just sat down with a nice cup of jasmine tea and was about to do some proofreading for work when, as is so oft the case, I decided to briefly take a glance at my Facebook.
Now, I have had an off-and-on relationship with Facebook for years. I was one of the first people in my age group back in middle school to get a Facebook account, at a time when nearly all of the people on the site were in college -- but back then, I was taking a lot of dance classes and performances with the Allegheny College Dance Department, so many of my friends were that age. Then, when I did my year abroad in high school, it was a great way to keep in touch with folks, and to share parts of my experience with large groups of my friends or acquaintances at once. Then, after I got back, there was about a year in college when I simply deactivated my account, not liking the "timesuck" that it was.
But now, after this and that and oh so many awkward moments of "You don't have a Facebook? I guess I can email you, but I never check my email..." and simply wanting to see the pictures of my friends on vacation and the children of extended family - well, I'm back on it again. But I've noticed a new trend in my news feed of late (that is to say, the past year or so) that I find troubling.
First off, a few caveats. 1. The things I am about to list may be specific to those people I happen to be "friends" with on Facebook. 2. I may be extremely sensitive and pick up on things no one else would think were an issue. 3. Well, I'm sure there are more. I'm just going to tell you what I think anyway.
There seems to be a big wave of negativity these days. I don't just mean that bad things are happening in the world and people are upset about them, but rather there is a desire to post about things that make people upset, hoping to have their outrage validated by others. For example, there are often internet articles that are fads; they go viral and zoom around from one person to another over the course of a few days and get a lot of "buzz". Now, most mainstream "click me" articles, even if they're supposed to "make you cry" or assure you "you won't believe what happens next" - well, they are frequently problematic. Whether it's racist, sexist, classist, whichever-ist - there are usually some problematic undertones. Sometimes they are obvious, sometimes you really have to dig for them -- and someone will. And I think there's a difference between commenting when someone else posts said article and saying (KINDLY) "I think this article has a few issues because...." and between posting that article (as many of my Facebook seem to acquaintances do) simply out of bile. Just so they can say "Take a look at this disgusting exhibit of the patriarchy" - or whichever the enemy du jour is.
I don't know why this bothers me so much - but I find that every time I read over my news feed, I end up unhappy. And I feel there's a difference between responding truthfully and critically to other people and the world, and bringing up something you are angry about merely out of spite, encouraging more anger, hoping for that validation... I just feel it multiplies. It makes me not want to look at Facebook anymore, but maybe that's not such a bad thing.
A few more caveats at the end - I am not advocating pretending everything is jolly and ignoring all the bad things in the world - absolutely not. Also, it's quite possible that after having attended an extremely liberal women's college in the Bay Area, I have an above average number of vocal, angry activists on my news feed.
If you are at all interested in a discussion of similar topics in the form of a podcast, I highly recommend going to this webpage and clicking on the podcast called 'Our Computers, Ourselves'. It's a great listen - talks of technology and how we feel about it and what we do to it vs. what it does to us. Go for it. :)
