Mary Helen Hendrix believes in the educational value of the internet as Digital Learning Coordinator/Director, Interactive Digital Center for Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College. Dealing with social media is not always as constructive, she contends.
Merriam-Webster offers a rather lengthy definition of the word “social” but in a nutshell, they all seem closely related to its second definition “marked by or passed in pleasant companionship with friends or associates.”
On the other hand, antisocial is described as “not friendly to other people.”
Now that we have clarified those two words, let’s look at some of the more popular social media platforms. Currently Facebook still ranks as the number one social media platform followed closely by Twitter and then LinkedIn. There are a myriad of other platforms but these are the “Big 3.”.
People join social networks for many reasons – a desire to have a voice, the desire for real world connections, a desire to be involved are just a few. And social media offers a great opportunity for just that – the coming together of a disparate group of people who happen to have something in common that they can share and enjoy. Unfortunately, social media also presents a platform where misunderstandings are easily generated and antisocial responses are rampant.
Do a search on “Twitter Wars.” There is nothing even remotely related to pleasant companionship apparent in those streams. But there is certainly an abundance of “not friendly to others.” The same thing occurs on Facebook.
A problem has arisen where we have taken a positive platform and turned it into an antisocial media outlet. An outlet where it is totally acceptable for us to lambast someone for thinking differently than we do. A place to try to force our views down someone else’s throat. The message is frequently, “I don’t agree with you, you are stupid and should have something horrible happen to you for what you posted.”
Read through responses to articles on the internet and you will find an abundance of hate speech. Rather than a place to gather with like-minded people, it is a place to search and destroy those who have the nerve to think differently than we do. A short blurb taken out of context and you suddenly find yourself under attack in the middle of a very antisocial occurrence. All because you expressed yourself.
When did freedom of expression come to mean freedom to verbally assault someone who expresses an opinion different from yours? When did we become such a vindictive and hurtful society that this is acceptable behavior?
The solution to all this antisocial feedback seems to be so simple. If you do not like the political or religious leanings of one of our social media “friends”, don’t read them. Why attack? They are just expressing their opinions as we do. And, contrary to popular belief, their opinions have just as much value as ours.
I have heard the argument made, “It is our job to educate them and make them see the light.” We fail to see that it is the same from their perspective – they need to educate us and lead us to the light.
The problem is we “know” we are right and they are wrong! Wait a minute here – who’s right and who’s wrong? I got confused.
Oh yes, I am right – of course I am!