Get Off My Personal Post

Like most of the world, I am on social media. I find it fascinating and sometimes I have a love/hate relationship with it. As we evolve with this strange beast in our lives, I have been wondering about the etiquette and how this is changing. When I started my first business, an online gift service, we were astounded for the first few years at what people would say in email, hiding behind their keyboard and that supposed anonymity. We developed a strategy of calling the rudest and most vitriolic as they would never behave like that in person. There were many conversations that I had where I wanted to insert a footnote to the end of our conversation that said, so please don’t be so rude on email next time, but I didn’t.

Of course, this was before trolling had emerged and before twitter and facebook. Have you read the comments section on newspaper articles, feeds and media streams lately? Whoa. They are fierce. The other day I was reading a thread underneath a video from the ABC. The video was a show that was a satire of the wage gap between men and women. And boy the comments were harsh and mean and people were having full on arguments.  I understand people who have robust thoughts and opinions; I get that. What upsets me is how mean people are in these long threads with people all over the country that don’t know each other.

There is a different phenomenon though which I am beginning to notice and damn it, I’m going to nip it in the bud right now. My personal feed and my personal posts are not a platform for people to spread their hate or ignorance. Especially if you’ree fishing for an argument or have a desire to spar. Everyone is entitled to their view. I get that. It’s a free world and its free speech, but just because it’s social media doesn’t mean that we have to have our manners fall out, does it? It kind of feels like someone is butting into a conversation. Remember I’m talking about my personal feed and my personal posts. I am declaring a personal boundary. Of course, the platform originated so that ‘friends’ saw our posts. However, I know that there are many ‘friends’ I don’t know now on Facebook. The thing is for me, I don’t care. I feel that if it’s my personal post, back off. Take your argument, to a public platform or feed.  If you can’t say something civil or strongly disagree, keep that finger there scrolling.  I have decided that I’m perfectly okay with deleting comments.

Andy x