Looking ahead to 2019-a resolution re: social media When they go low, we go high…words to live by

Social media can be a wonderful thing…can easily keep in touch with lots of people at once and not just people you personally know. With me, I’ve connected with old friends from before social media, people from tailgating, and a lot of people through my work with the Jills and Bandettes. And that’s just Facebook. I’ve lost track of all the people of celebrity status like actors and actresses and pro athletes that I not only follow but follow me back on Twitter and/or Instagram.

Unfortunately, there’s a negative to social media as well…and I’m not talking about the addiction that some people have to it that keeps them from paying attention to the world around them. While you can easily connect and converse with people you want to, you can also get sucked into connecting and conversing with the dregs of society as well….the bigots and the ignorant hateful people. The last few years, with a career con artist and renowned bigoted moron in the White House, those types of people have come out of the woodwork, no longer hiding in the shadows and under sheets like they used to. Scary thing is, with social media, you find out that you know many of those people...it’s an eye opener to find out that the people you thought were great people have some ugly bigoted skeletons in their closets.

Anyway, I’ve become a lot more politically aware the last few years and have weighed in on social media…unfortunately, many of those dregs like to “weigh in” as well…but since they don’t have facts on their side, they generally just hurl insults. Now, while I’m generally bringing facts to the table, I confess I’ve hurled plenty of insults back in addition.

So for my New Year’s resolution, I’m curbing the insults as much as possible. Some will slip out, I know but I’m going to try to follow the mantra of 2018’s most admired woman, Michelle Obama. “When they go low, we go high.” Instead of hurling insults right back, when I’m tempted to, I’ll simply block them. They’re not worth the time to insult.

For example, over the weekend, I paid a compliment to a friend on a photo she posted on Instagram. Then yesterday, some clown with a private account made some stupid and stalkerish comments towards me after that compliment. Rather than point out his obvious issues, I simply blocked him. People whose only goal on social media is to be scumbags are likely just as bad away from social media and they aren’t exactly getting a heavenly reward when all is said and done.