Yesterday, I had an unhappy day on facebook. I ran across one of those 'copy and paste' posts that a few of my friends had shared. The piece that they copied and pasted started out with something that was not at all true of the Christian faith. So I posted about it, on my timeline and on my Walking With God page too. Then I later went back and deleted the posts, because I feared someone reporting me to facebook, and getting my account penalized. But not before someone had commented on the post, railing at me for what I said.
Now what I said wasn't that bad. It was completely true of the Christian faith, and I supported what I said by scripture from the Holy Bible. It just wasn't pc.
So here's what it was - there was this post on facebook that started out with a line saying that you could be gay and be Christian. Which you can't. That is totally not true.
The rest of the copied and pasted post was a laundry list of 'stand for nothing, everything goes' garbage. What bothered me was about half a dozen of my friends shared it, and their friends commented on it, rah-rahing it.
But not one commented on the thing that had bothered me.
Deleting that post made me so sad, so down. And that's when I realized that I wasn't going to post much of anything on my timeline anymore. That seems to be the place where the hateful trolls find me. So a simple solution to eliminating that stress point of upset was to quit posting on my timeline except for a very limited range of things.
And I came to the conclusion that social sites weren't very social at all anymore. They were full of mean, hateful people who were opinionated to the point of being a bully about their opinions. They didn't respect your right to share your opinion on your timeline, unharassed. If it was public, they felt they had a right to express their opinion right there on your post. They don't seem to give any consideration as to how their comment might make you feel. They don't seem to think that maybe they should express their opinion on the subject on their own personal space (timeline, profile) on said social site.
Then I began reviewing the posts od one of my blogs that I've had since around 2011. I've recently rechristened it for books and writing, and I wanted to check out the posts there; to find out if I wanted to delete or move any of them. That's something I've recently figured out, about moving a post from one blog to another.
It was then that I realized that all this now, it had roots beginning back 2-4 years ago and more. I read my posts in that blog, talking about the very thing that is still happening now, that is worse. So it's all brought me to a change.
I spent a good amount of time today going through all my facebook groups that I belonged to, and dumped about half of them. I no longer simply unfollow people who make those mean comments, I unfriend them. And to avoid those mean comments, I'm not going to be posting much on my timeline. I've put up posts saying that too. Some of my friends have encouraged me to keep on with my posting, and I appreciate all the kind words that they have shared. I really do. But when the mean trolls come by, leaving their angry comments, those folks aren't there at that particular moment. It's just me and the hater.
And I have several chronic conditions and live with daily chronic pain. So I definitely don't need the stress. Previously before, in recent years, I have re-evaluated how I invest my time; and the time has come to do that again. I'm tired of dreading comments.
It's sad that our world has reached this state, but it has; and I don't know when it will get better.
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