I’ve begun a social media and news fast for approximately 4 years.  I may eat my words and migrate back to social media and/or the news, but for now it’s the trajectory I’m taking.

I’ll bide my time looking at random Wikipedia articles blissfully unaware of anything that might cause stress in my life. I inadvertently did this before while I was in college, not watching the news (social media wasn’t a thing back then).

I may turn to this blog as an outlet for ideas and conclusions.  Stay tuned.

For the life of me I cannot look away from certain friends and neighbors and remember their outrageous social media posts.  This is causes a real barrier on relationships.  I dare not talk politics with Christian friends for fear of learning how someone REALLY feels about social issues.  Folks express extreme hatred for the other side and then pepper their social media stream with Bible verses espousing their love for one another.  It makes me wonder how much people really pay attention to the 2nd greatest command.

• Missionary preacher acquaintance egging on one of their friends stating Hitler was right and the Jews fabricated the war crimes in WW2.
• High school friend subtly advocating violence to solve the race problem in America. She says she’s not advocating for violence, but always advocates for loss of property over loss of life. But she didn’t comment about if her loss of property was up for grabs. Virtue signaling.
• Acquaintance from church camp posting about justice for Breonna Taylor ad nasuem for several months, but as soon as football season starts, it changes to all football all the time. Again virtue signaling.
• Antivaxer acquaintance from church camp. I really didn’t know that antivaxers existed, much like unicorns and flat earthers I thought they were the stuff of legends. But there it was along with a mask that says “Tyranny.” Those who’ve lived under North Korea or 1950 Communist Eastern Block would laugh as to say that a government mask requirement would be considered tyranny. Antivaxers and antimaskers have it good even with or without the vaccines and masks.

This popped in my Facebook feed today.  The school shooting in Marshall County was a tragedy, no doubt.  I understand the need to show support to the victim. But I fail to realize how wearing blue and orange will make a significant impact in regards to preventing this.  Why not volunteer at a mental health facility?  How about knowing the warning signs when someone is going to become violent toward others?  Give money to those affected by the shooting.  Give blood in someone’s name.  These are more important activities than just wearing a certain color on a certain day…which will be forgotten 6 months from now.  Remember when we wore orange and blue?  Remember when we really made a difference?  No, because simply wearing colors does not make a difference in the long run.

This week I read (thankfully) of the news that Facebook is changing their news feed, instead focusing more on what friends and family say rather than what corporations share.

I applaud this decision as Facebook was becoming a cesspool of detestable items.

Basically Facebook items can be broken down thusly.

Memes.  And quite honestly I wish these would go away, or if there was some kind of mechanism where it would not show the same meme twice, it would extremely helpful.  I’ll couple this classificatoin in with weird and funny videos curtailed from Reddit….again…most of which I’ve already seen.

Urban legends.  Doesn’t anyone check Snopes anymore?  This is a daily thing with some people, which I kindly comment with a link to the Snopes article refuting the claim.  And yes, I’ve been defriended because of this.

Quizzes – Which Disney Character Are you?  These also need to go away.  One minute you’re taking a quiz and the next day your account has been hacked and you wonder why?

Missing children….usually from other states.  I realize that families are desperate to find their child, but there is only so much I can do from several states away.  Plus by the time the story has been shared multiple times the child is found, but no one stops to check this before sharing again.  This is also coupled with missing and found pets (usually posted on community boards as well).  Since I don’t own or want any pets these stories are noise to me.

Political stories.  Usually its why the other side is completely detestable and wrong. I am convinced that social media is only further dividing the nation.  And most people get by with having a chorus of yes’s on their side when sharing a news story.  Someone disagrees?  They defriend them.

Advertisements from pages that I have “liked” or my friends have “liked.”  For this very reason I do not subscribe to that many pages.  Really only localized content to keep up with special offers or coupons.  And quite honestly I really wonder about my friends who “Like” weird things like credit card companies.

And finally – true unique content from your friends and family.  We’re talking those funny stories their kids did, baby photos, pet photos, etc.  This is what I use Facebook for.

This appeared in Facebook feed.  This is a prime example of a witch hunt mentality.  Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.  Take everything with a grain of salt.  Could it be that this whole story was fabricated as revenge against an old boyfriend?  Chat windows can be easily faked.  And what if this person had a boyfriend who said some offputting remark which he later apologized for?  Would she go completely rouge and publish someone’s info on the internet for all 1320 people to share?  Report it to the dating app and move on with your life.

And no, I’m not trying to justify rape or even the comment.  It’s horrible.  But I question the recipient’s actions.

I find myself subscribing to new social media sites. Ello is one such site. It’s a Twitter clone. I have 2 friends on it. I haven’t logged-in in months.

Then on the day of election a message pops up on my phone:  “Go F***ing Vote.”

 What it this?  How would I have explained this to my niece or nephew had they been sitting behind me reading my messages?

Afterwards as somewhat of a way of seeing how I could protest this without sounding like a fuddy duddy, I decided to go to Ello’s website.  And lo and behold, more vulgar messages on their front page (I pixelated the S-word).

This is like a junior high kid trying to edgy and failing miserably.  I wonder which millennial grunt at Ello thought it was a good idea to send a newsletter out to their userbase with a vulgarity in the subject line.

What’s the takeaway on this?  Ello is vulgar, plain and simple.  Ello rejoices in vulgarity to the point of promoting it.

Do I delete my account?  Possibly.  Somehow I doubt that will make a difference, after all I don’t visit the site anyway.  But I did unsubscribe to their newsletter.

I subscribe to alot of Twitter feeds.  Liberal, conservative, my Twitter feed runs the gambit.  I figure it is more enlightening to see all sides of an issue.

So when the below story popped up by @Factable it was intriguing.  I mean 25 years is a long time for a prank of Swatting a fellow gamer.

I wanted to find out more about the story.  So when I searched for the new story, this video popped up:

Not only does the photo reflect a totally different story – that is of tragic child abuse case, the actual case of the teenaged swatter was fabricated…in 2014.

Needless to say I unfollowed @Factable soon after.

Another day, another Facebook shares of Southwest Airlines free ticket scam giveaways.  This pops up in my feed ever so often.  And try as I might, by commenting withe Snopes Something for Nothing link, it never seems to go away.  This time it was different.  It was college educated folks which were sharing it.  People who should know better.  But I guess there is no stopping someone from quickly sharing a scam rather than doing some homework to figure out if it is true or not.

That same day it was shared we discussed in our Bible class how we should consult our Bibles rather than just believing whatever our preacher / bible class teacher said.  And I only wish this was the case for all media, not just religious teachings.

Meanwhile that same night I had a realtor friend share a false news story about how Kevin Costner is moving to my hometown.  And I think I probably won’t be buying a home from that realtor anytime soon.