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The Death of Civil Discourse?
Dec. 1st, 2017 10:13 amBecause I was just telling a friend, "Oh, I almost NEVER get called in to work on a Friday afternoon!" What happens? I got called in to work at Roseville. I managed to eke an extra hour out of my boss, so I don't have to be there until 11 am, but, OMG, if we weren't broke, I would not agree to this. I'm soooooooo tired this morning.
I blame the Wyrdsmiths. I had such a good time last night talking to everyone. They lift my spirits. But, because we met last night, I wasn't home until almost 11 pm. Around these parts, we get up at 5:45 am.
If I didn't have to rush into work today, I would write about "the lost art of conversation." A friend of mine recently "quit the internet" (by which he actually only meant Facebook and Twitter). He did so because he was, among other things, tired of how quickly any kind of half-formed thought posted on social media will jumped on and harassed. This has sparked a conversation among my Real Life (tm) friends about what's wrong with the internet.
I've come to a couple of conclusions. Neither of them are particularly brilliant, but here thy are.
1. The short form sucks.
One of the reasons you're finding me here on Dreamwidth much more than you used to, is that, recently, I've begun to appreciate long-form writing. This is also why I pen pal. To be fair, blogging and letter writing is NOT perfect communication. There's some back and forth, but it's often very limited by audience (my blog reaches 10s of you, my letters go to a single person,) and time (replies to my blog aren't anywhere as fast as what happens on other social media, like FB or Twitter, and, international letters still take about a week to travel back and forth.) BUT, what I like about long form that's missing in 140 (or 240 or whatever it is now) characters/paragraphs that are allowed on social media, is the chance to really explore an idea. I can start with a statement like "the short form sucks" and I can write several hundred words about it and maybe, even in the process of thinking through that idea in a blog, I might change my mind about my initial blanket statement.
Maybe there are times when the short form doesn't suck. In fact, I can think of several. On Facebook, a friend of mine was talking about how her uncles hate social media because "all people do is post pictures of their food" (a paraphrase). Frankly, that's one of the positives about social media, IMHO. I LIKE hearing about the minutia of people's lives. I actually DOES make me feel more connected to people.
But, that's why I would never LEAVE social media, like my friend is doing. I find a lot of value in liking people's selfies and commenting on their delicious looking beef stew.
That doesn't, however, mean that the initial problem my friend is facing isn't also true. I've watched several people get in trouble for asking questions about politically charged situations. A friend of mine asked, "Why is BLM disrupting Gay Pride? Isn't that attacking another minority group?" and instead of people helpfully pointing to articles that explained why BLM chose that particular Pride parade and what the gay community thought of it, people immediately assumed the worst of her, labeled her a racist, and probably insta-unfriended her.
I think SOME of this could have been mitigated in a longer form medium. If she'd blogged that question, getting into all of her thoughts and concerns, MAYBE people wouldn't have been so quick to condemnation. MAYBE.
2. The political climate makes it hard to want to educate evil.
Okay, my friends who have gotten shut down recently aren't evil, but there are legit Russian bots out there who are trying to disrupt our social media platforms by being trolls. There are also trolls. There are also Nazis. This makes it really hard to not just want to, as my son would say, "Nope out."
3. Crap, I have to go.
Right, so this is going to be an unfinished thought. I'm sure I'll return to it, but here's where I have to leave it.
Feel free to add your thoughts to this conversation, if you'd like.
I blame the Wyrdsmiths. I had such a good time last night talking to everyone. They lift my spirits. But, because we met last night, I wasn't home until almost 11 pm. Around these parts, we get up at 5:45 am.
If I didn't have to rush into work today, I would write about "the lost art of conversation." A friend of mine recently "quit the internet" (by which he actually only meant Facebook and Twitter). He did so because he was, among other things, tired of how quickly any kind of half-formed thought posted on social media will jumped on and harassed. This has sparked a conversation among my Real Life (tm) friends about what's wrong with the internet.
I've come to a couple of conclusions. Neither of them are particularly brilliant, but here thy are.
1. The short form sucks.
One of the reasons you're finding me here on Dreamwidth much more than you used to, is that, recently, I've begun to appreciate long-form writing. This is also why I pen pal. To be fair, blogging and letter writing is NOT perfect communication. There's some back and forth, but it's often very limited by audience (my blog reaches 10s of you, my letters go to a single person,) and time (replies to my blog aren't anywhere as fast as what happens on other social media, like FB or Twitter, and, international letters still take about a week to travel back and forth.) BUT, what I like about long form that's missing in 140 (or 240 or whatever it is now) characters/paragraphs that are allowed on social media, is the chance to really explore an idea. I can start with a statement like "the short form sucks" and I can write several hundred words about it and maybe, even in the process of thinking through that idea in a blog, I might change my mind about my initial blanket statement.
Maybe there are times when the short form doesn't suck. In fact, I can think of several. On Facebook, a friend of mine was talking about how her uncles hate social media because "all people do is post pictures of their food" (a paraphrase). Frankly, that's one of the positives about social media, IMHO. I LIKE hearing about the minutia of people's lives. I actually DOES make me feel more connected to people.
But, that's why I would never LEAVE social media, like my friend is doing. I find a lot of value in liking people's selfies and commenting on their delicious looking beef stew.
That doesn't, however, mean that the initial problem my friend is facing isn't also true. I've watched several people get in trouble for asking questions about politically charged situations. A friend of mine asked, "Why is BLM disrupting Gay Pride? Isn't that attacking another minority group?" and instead of people helpfully pointing to articles that explained why BLM chose that particular Pride parade and what the gay community thought of it, people immediately assumed the worst of her, labeled her a racist, and probably insta-unfriended her.
I think SOME of this could have been mitigated in a longer form medium. If she'd blogged that question, getting into all of her thoughts and concerns, MAYBE people wouldn't have been so quick to condemnation. MAYBE.
2. The political climate makes it hard to want to educate evil.
Okay, my friends who have gotten shut down recently aren't evil, but there are legit Russian bots out there who are trying to disrupt our social media platforms by being trolls. There are also trolls. There are also Nazis. This makes it really hard to not just want to, as my son would say, "Nope out."
3. Crap, I have to go.
Right, so this is going to be an unfinished thought. I'm sure I'll return to it, but here's where I have to leave it.
Feel free to add your thoughts to this conversation, if you'd like.