Politics on Facebook
I am not talking politics on Facebook (although it’s tough) … I feel that those Facebook was invented as a quick “what I am doing”, “this is funny”, remember Tom Smith from High School and here are some cool pictures from my life… For some reason it has evolved into a platform for every thought (either smart or otherwise) that a person has about religion, politics and (less offensively but just as divisive) sports… This might be a shock and I could be wrong, but these posts have NEVER changed ANY thought, opinion or stance the other side has. “Oh, you like something Mitt said? Well, I guess I will change my mind about being a tree-hugging liberal! WOW! That one line of text on Facebook really gave me new perspective” has NEVER HAPPENED and NEVER WILL.
The medium itself was not designed for these types of LARGE scale discussions and DOES NOT BELONG THERE. If you have some pressing thing to say about religion or politics that is so important that you just HAVE to get it out then go to a news article and post in the comments, go to a forum for these issues and discuss, get a blog or simply type it into an email and send it to a person with confirmed similar beliefs… No one else wants to hear it. TRUST ME.
As I explore my disLIKE for posting about these topics on Facebook I come to the idea that on top of ‘acceptance’ and ‘recruitment’ people think they are actually ‘changing the world’ with this action. If you TRULY believe something, you do not need to go out into the world for constant validation … I believe that another 4 years of Obama would be good. If NO ONE else in the WORLD believed this I still would. Seeing ‘Go Obama’ every other post on my timeline does not make me feel any better or worse about my belief. Seeing ‘Go Mitt’ does not make me any more likely to vote for him. These ‘recruitment’ posts are a waste of everyone’s time.
From * this MUCH better written article…
* I highly doubt all of your Facebook friends share the same beliefs as you. People you know are going to develop new feelings toward you (some will like you more … some will dislike you more).
My advice to those who love feeding political fuel on Facebook would be to join Twitter. Usually those who rant on FB don’t have Twitter… and they are the people who should. You can follow others who have the same beliefs as you – and they can follow you right back. You can discuss/argue political issues with strangers, enjoy yourself, and not get blocked from people you actually know on Facebook. Yes, you will have to dig in to the creative side of your brain (everyone has one… or at least I think they do) to come up with 160 characters that express what you’re thinking. But it’s possible. And it’s fun!
