I deactivated my social media accounts today. I was attacked by both conservatives and liberals in one week for sharing ideas for discussion. The ideas in question were middle of the road ideas that are shared commonly by large percentages of the population. The attacks though were angry and personal.
A conservative family member last week called me and ranted that my support for Biden’s 2020 presidential candidacy directly caused the deaths of the 13 marines in Afghanistan during the US evacuation. I guess no marines died in Afghanistan under Trump? Over half of the US population voted for Biden. Further, Biden was simply following through on the agreement Trump had made with the Taliban to exit the country. Bizarre that anyone could make this leap.
Multiple liberals complained this week to my wife about a post with an idea on how to increase fertility rates in populations with sub-replacement levels. This idea is not one I actually believe in, but was one I wanted to discuss. The idea is one that is actually a tenet of the Catholic faith and is held by billions of people worldwide. The people who messaged my wife though said the idea made them feel “unsafe”. This is a watchword used by certain types of liberals for speech they dislike.
I am guilty of angry reactions on social media as well. When I see posts on social media, I tend to have knee jerk angry reactions sometimes if they oppose my beliefs. I don’t have this when I am talking to people in person, or on the phone, or via email. So why does it happen on social media?
Another issue for me is just the amount of time wasted on social media. Sometimes, I would login with a specific purpose in mind like checking the bicycle race time for the week in my bike group but would see posts or notifications and get sucked down a rabbit hole and forget why I logged in in the first place. It is a waste of my life.