Shhhh, hear that? Yeah, me neither.

Before social media, back when kids were on MySpace and parents were still reading books, there was blogging.  As a communication tool, it was flawed in that--unless you were in that special 1%--you were mostly talking to no one.  Indeed, this blog has a crowd-gathering 19 followers, and I'm sure 17 of those are gone.  But blogging was also perfect in that--unless you were in that special 1%--you were mostly talking to no one.

I'd come to blogging through my former writing career.  It was what you did to create a following, or if nothing else, have a web address to slap on a business card.  And when I stopped writing, I abandoned that blog in favor of this one.  Titled "LoriBees Garden" this was the place I recorded and shared my hobbies, not to create a following, but simply to entertain myself.

Then came the next shiny object:  Facebook.

Unlike blogging, which is primarily talking AT people, Facebook was about talking WITH people.  It was fast, it was easy.  You could throw out a photo, an observation, a memory, and start a discussion.  You didn't have to be a writer, and you didn't need to have a point.  You could just toss things out and see what stuck.  And when the world was light and happy, it was fun.

But like everything during these last 4 years, I'm watching Facebook corrode as we all seek shelter within our clans.  Real discussion and thought has been abandoned in favor of easy labels like "snowflakes" and "racists", "Libtards" and "Repugnicans".  I disagree, therefore I "drank the Kool-Aid".  My world view doesn't match yours, thus we must be watching FOX or MSNBC, because clearly, our environment and experiences couldn't possibly shape our opinions.  We can only be brainwashed by either Hannity or Maddow. 

I don't really blame people for this.  What I blame is that little icon on everything that lets you "Share" with one click.  Facebook has given us the capability of throwing content on our news feed in a fraction of a second.  And because it's so easy, rarely do we stop to ask questions such as, "Is this fake?" or "Why am I sharing this?" or "Who is my target audience?"  We see something that makes us angry, so we put up a retaliatory post, forgetting that most of us have hundreds of people lurking our news feed, and no one knows if that post was for them or someone else.  Was it intended to get a rise out of people, or are we desperate for someone to listen?  Was it supposed to be funny?  Is it supposed to enlighten?  Rarely, does anyone clarify, thus we as the recipients are left to make those assumptions ourselves.  So we respond in kind.  And thus perpetuates the swirling toilet flush that has become the average Facebook news feed.

I don't think I'm alone when I say I'm sick of it.  And unfortunately, I don't see a restoration of civility happening anytime soon.  And since my attempt at ignoring all the screaming or somehow rising above it keeps failing, I'm feeling the desire to go back to the simpler times when I blogged and talked to no one.  No, I'm not swearing off Facebook.  That kind of grandstanding always seems like such a transparent plea for attention.  And right now, I'm not interested in attention.

So hello Blogger, dear friend.  I'm back and happy you're still here for me.  Thanks to Covid, I'm doing lots of gardening and photographing and cooking and art.  So I have lots to talk about, even if it's just to myself.  😁