Meditation for May 19th, 2016
The Pen is Mightier Than The Sword
When you ride a bus and someone shouts out that Hillary Clinton is a witch who should be burned at a stake, you would assume that this person is crazy and pretend to read your book more or that your music on your headphones were too loud. If someone yells out a rebuttals to first yeller, then you still assume that all yellers are crazy and you will dream about owning a car.
If someone yells out that people should use any bathroom they want or that gay people should be able to marry or that slavery is bad, then that person is also crazy, but it made your day so much better, but you still don’t make eye contact.
When people yell at each other in a public place about anything, it is rude and barbaric. You shouldn’t have to be subjected to people’s loud angry voices. You wish they would stop and that someone, but not you, should stop them.
Why is this behavior okay because it is in written form? Just because you aren’t yelling from the rooftops literally doesn’t mean it is okay. You still have no control over anyone else’s opinion.
Facebook isn’t a dinner table. It isn’t a coffee shop and you’re schooling some college student about worker rights. It is a thing to numb you while you ignore your pointless meaningless existence and getting a response.
That is all Facebook is, a digital way to get a reaction. It is a way for someone out there feel they have been a knowledged. Like in real life, some people have a harder time getting positive feedback, so they would rather bring hate and resentment then be an invisible person.
We all do it. Everytime I post one of these blogs on to Facebook, I wait for anyone to say they liked what they have read. I make my girlfriend read them in front of me so I can see her laugh, and when she laughs I as her, “What? What made you laugh?” When no one reacts to a blog post, I get discouraged. I dread getting any negative feedback.
This is the addiction of Facebook. The common human connection isn’t enough or it is too hard and scary, so we rely on Facebook for a way to be apart of something. We troll and post ridiculous things and get bogged down in political quagmires that just leave us angry and exhausted wondering why the world is so terrible.
It isn’t that terrible, but Facebook is showing us a very negative side of the human experience. It shows the very tribal way we divide on political and social issues and how much we need to win useless arguments. That makes the very dark side of people shine in your face like a blue light.
Turn it off and reintroduce yourself to person to person debate and discussion.
Prayer
Jonathan Abrams,
Things have escalated since your networking social site Friendster took the nation by storm.
Boy oh boy.
First the Pimp Your Myspace let me have wild colors, lightning bolts streak across my profile and the song Get Low by Lil Jon would be blasting making people fumbling for the volume on their Dell towers quick.
Then it was this Facebook.
Why was this the one that everyone decided was cool?
It wasn’t any different them Friendster and the profiles weren’t customizable like MySpace.
Now people hide behind their phones and stand up for democracy with all caps, memes and links.
People who supposedly have jobs are arguing on several comment threads at once every minute all day.
These meek mild manner people come out of their dank dark holes and blink at the light and scurry back in case someone reacted to something they have written.
This is our great civilization on “paper”.
Boi oh boi.
It would seem that we shouldn’t have started this social media thing after all.
After all, no one wins but the people who have been winning anyway.
We’ve all lost.
Amen.
Craft
Find a really intense Facebook argument.
Print it out.
Cast actors or friends to play the parts.
Read the arguments with the most exaggerated tone of the original author’s intent.
Film.
Post.
Hilarity ensues.
Having Siri read Facebook posts is funny too.
Goal
As long as you are arguing on Facebook, you have no goals.
You are not helping someone learn.
You aren’t having an open debate.
You aren’t starting a revolution.
You aren’t being the voice no one is hearing.
You aren’t helping people see the truth.
You are just an asshole.