For the past several months, I have
felt conflicted regarding Facebook. It seems that every time I log on lately I
am bombarded by depressing, anxiety inducing news articles. An Ohio teen
recently died from a rare brain-eating amoeba she contracted while in swimming
in North Carolina. Violent pornography was found on Michael Jackson’s Neverland
Ranch. A Tampa teen was found dead after a night of drinking and LSD. Four
young girls were killed after the tire of the car they were riding in blew out,
flipping the vehicle and resulting in their fatalities. An alligator at a
Disney resort drowned a two year old. Then, of course, the never ending
headlines regarding the Orlando shootings. I am confronted with the ignorant
bigotry of Donald Trump, and the refusal of politicians to protect the citizens
of this country. These are the news stories that glare at me from my screen. As
I scroll through my news feed, I also run across article after article about
children dying from rare diseases, cancer, and simple colds. All this death, destruction,
and bigotry is making me sad, anxious, and completely fatalistic. There are
days I dread what I might find is my perusal of this seemingly harmless social
network.
And yet, I
continue to sign in. I continue to do so in the hopes that I might find a
newsworthy article that is uplifting, funny, inspiring, and attempts to restore
my faith in humanity. But I also continue to sign in because of you, my
friends. Facebook comforts me when I am feeling my most lonely. It allows me to
share bits of my life with you, and feel like I am a part of your lives. I get
to watch your children grow, celebrate your successes and mourn your failures.
Facebook, very simply, keeps me connected.
How then do
I resolve the conflict I feel between hating the negative news and loving the
connection I feel to each of you? Limit my time? Ignore the news? I’m not sure
that there is a simple answer to what seems a complicated question. For now, I
will do my best to focus on the positive, laugh heartily when necessary, and do
as Mr. Rogers recommends by looking for the helpers.
I ignore the negative and keep my facebook feed full of positive, feel good group feeds. I keep up with family and friends, but we are surrounded by negativity, I don't need or want it consuming me.
ReplyDeleteI try hard not to let it, and in the past it never seemed to be that bad, but lately I feel bombarded by negativity.
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