The Day Social Media Turned Me Into a Coward
Facebook recently reminded me of my first social media post. It was a 20 second video of my five-month-old daughter gurgling and grunting in her baby swing. I received two “likes” on the post and one comment — not bad considering that I had only 12 friends at the time.
Eleven years and 1,050 friends later, my Facebook feed has become a digital wasteland. I occasionally catch a glimpse of a friend’s baby between scary articles about our dying planet, opinion pieces on vaccines, impeachment, gun ownership, abortion, LGBTQ rights, rigged elections and the dangers of plastic.
I occasionally see that a colleague or friend is fighting cancer between images of a burning Australia, Puerto Rico in shambles, starving children in Syria and mass shootings in Texas.
I occasionally see a picture of someone’s happy grandmother celebrating her 90th birthday between memes of Donald Trump or Nancy Pelosi, memes about sex, Wal-Mart shoppers, and angry cats.
And on every post that does not include a cute baby or a sweet grandmother, there is an avalanche of comments. And in these comments good and decent people hide behind the polycarbonate shields on their smart phones or laptops. It’s where good people who teach their children to say “please” and “thank you” suddenly let loose a barrage of hateful…
