Make Facebook Fun Again

In the past two years, I have learned an awful lot about myself.

I have learned that my opinions are ignorant and stupid. If I do not support a certain agenda, I have no class and no morals.

I have learned that I am not worthy of associating with certain people because my beliefs are not exactly like their own.

I have learned that I am un-American because I criticize my government.  And I thought that the First Amendment guaranteed my right to speak out against those in power. Silly me.

And I have learned all of this courtesy of my Facebook "friends."

This is not to say that everyone on my list of Facebook associates engages in these mind-boggling behaviors.  In fact, it is only a small percentage.  But it seems as though the posts from this small group were the ones appearing in my newsfeed most frequently.

I can't figure out what inspires so-called intelligent people to behave in this manner.  I have decided that they either: A) Have a pathological need for attention; or B) are so insecure in their own beliefs that they need to denigrate the opinions of others to prove their superiority.  I suspect it is the latter.  Playground bullies behave in the exact same manner.

It would certainly be easy to unfriend these people.  But I do not want to do that for two reasons.  First of all, everyone is entitled to their opinion.  If I were to block them based solely on the fact that I do not agree with their political opinions, I am behaving no better than they are.

Secondly, I friended these people in the first place because I genuinely like them.  I do not accept friend requests simply because having 1,200 friends would look impressive.  I have nowhere near that number.  If you and I connect on social media, it is because I admire you as a person.  You are here because I know you, and I like you.

You're welcome.

I might not like their approach to politics, but these people may be an animal lover and are staunch supporters of prosecuting animal abusers.  Perhaps they are great cooks and post terrific recipes.  Or they may be family, whom I have to like.

All kidding aside, I want to see the good things that these people post without having to be insulted on a daily basis.  Fortunately, Facebook has a way to make this possible.

Therefore I am initiating a campaign to Make Facebook Fun Again.  And you can do it in a few simple steps.

I began to notice that most of these insults start flying when they share posts from other sites. There is little you can do about a general rant, but if it results mainly from obnoxious posts they share from others, you can keep them from appearing on your wall.

Say one of your friends posts something on their wall claiming that Obama's Kenyan birth certificate is hidden in the basement of a Washington, DC pizza parlor that is a cover for a sex ring run by Stormy Daniels and Rush Limbaugh.   And if you don't believe Obama is really a Kenyan operative placed in the White House as a Manchurian candidate by Al Qaeda, you are a communist and (the ultimate insult) A LIBERAL who will soon be indicted for hiding Hillary's missing emails, which you apparently shredded in the said pizza parlor and disposed of by passing them off as a mozzarella cheese substitute.  And by the way, you're stupid.

At the top of this friendly little post, there will be something like this: "Joe Schmo shared a post from Americans Standing Too Close To Microwaves and Losing Brain Cells." To the right of this, you will see three little dots.

By clicking on these three little dots, Facebook gives you several options.  You can save or hide this particular post.  You can snooze Americans Standing Too Close to Microwaves or snooze Joe Schmo for 30 days.  You can unfollow Joe Schmo, or hide all from the post's originator.  By clicking on "Hide all from Americans Standing Too Close To Microwaves," you will never see a post from that particular organization again even if your friends continually share them.

By choosing the last option, you are not only saving your sanity, but you will no doubt be doing your part to cut down on the spread of misinformation by troll sites. People who tend to spread these posts are generally too busy believing in anything that backs up their own biases to bother checking for truth or accuracy. And everyone knows that pizza parlor is actually in Hoboken, NJ.

I started doing this on a regular basis, and a surprising thing happened.  My newsfeed suddenly got happy.  I started seeing posts from people who had been missing on my Facebook feed for months.  I saw more funny cat videos and fewer posts telling me what a horrible person I must be. Rather than seeing the worst of my friends, I began seeing the best of them again.

And I don't block all political posts.  I don't mind knowing that my friends support a particular candidate or political viewpoint.  But when you have to insult others to make a point, don't assume that I, or anyone else, has to put up with it. Do it often enough and you will only be preaching to an ignorant and narrow-minded party of one.

Social media should be bringing out the best in us.  Not the worst.  Consider that you are posting this to people who are supposed to be your friends.  That should mean more to you than proving the superiority of your opinion.  And trust me when I tell you that insults do not make you seem superior. They make you look petty, immature and small.

Make Facebook Fun Again, people. I miss the days when the most controversial posts I saw were kids eating Tide pods.  Let's make Facebook a better place by going back to sharing pictures of our kids, dogs and vacations ad nauseam. The world will be a better place when we can once again return to watching cats stuff themselves in tiny boxes and see Grandpa lip sync to "Gangsta's Paradise."

Spread insights into your life.  Not insults to your friends.