Listen my wide-eyed reader – I need you to be forewarned, there’s no elaborate backstory here… Alas, I’m just a mere mortal – I’m more butler than billionaire if-you-will.
I’d like to let you know that I drink my coffee with cream and sometimes I wear matching socks.
Sometimes.
And you know what? I have a Facebook; I assume you do too.
And much like you – I’m pretty pickle-humping annoyed with everyone posting their political beliefs on Facebook as if the world was just dying to know what Johnny Smith and Suzie Q’s opinion’s were…
So at this moment I’d like to call out the elephant in the room.
My theory is this: Facebook has become a cluster fuck.
Yep, an old fashioned, wet-hot-american-summer–cluster-fuck and I’m the janitor who has to clean up this orgy.
So in my effort to rid myself of needless passive aggression, I’ve decided to write my take on why you shouldn’t post your political beliefs on Facebook.
Enjoy.
*** Now before someone gets their panties in a knot, I want you to know that I’m a firm believer in the power of expression. Hell – I think expressing yourself and your beliefs (including the political ones) are well…good!
My issue is more so with the negative take on politics that I’m noticing more and more. This post is in reference to people who post one sided political beliefs. The reason I don’t like these kind of posts is by being one sided, you’re not allowing for any constructive dialog to take place. ***
If Only There Was A Place
In a world full of communities that have dined on the fruit of discussing differentiating political ideals, one must ask themselves that instead of posting their political stance on Facebook, perhaps there are more effective means of sharing your beliefs with the world.
If only there was a hall in a town that had meetings where people could meet to discuss the issues of the day.
If only there was a council in a city that had meetings where you could find solutions to modern issues.
If only there where parties of political people that had local chapters that one could be involved in.
If only, if only, if only – The questions, they burn me.
Let’s be honest:
The problem with posting your political opinion on Facebook is that it isn’t making a damn-bit of difference. Yes – like seriously.
When was the last time you felt persuaded over conflicting belief, rant filled Facebook post from some bitch you went to high school with?
Go ahead I’m waiting.
Yep… thought so.
You see that’s the problem, people think they’re making a difference by spamming your timeline one argument at a time but their not.
Instead they’re annoying the shit out of you.
Sounds pretty counterintuitive doesn’t it?
That’s because it is.
Posting your political beliefs on Facebook is a waste of energy and it doesn’t make a difference.
Newsflash: you’re not converting people over to your side of the pond, one hate filled political message at a time. In reality you’re dividing people.
Worst of all, the problem is revved up ten-fold because people get positive feedback from like minded people.
So with all the positive reinforcement, people continue to share their political beliefs because they get rewarded for that behavior.
The machine keeps spitting out the widgets and it’s getting out of control!
The end result: Facebook has because a cluster fuck
But what the Hell do I know?
My Solution
So what’s my takeaway I want to leave you with?
Good Question.
My take away is this: instead of posting your political dogma on Facebook, get involved in the community and take action. Hell – you might even notice a result.
You’re welcome.
Please like, comment, and share and tell me what you think. Tell me if you agree with my point of view or if you think I’m an assclown. Tell me about the posts that annoy you.
Hashtag activism is rampant but it does very little in terms of making a REAL impact. Instead of sending prayers, GET OUT and donate your time or MONEY. I’m pretty conservative when sharing my VIEWS on Facebook, and I do it sparingly if only to lessen the “noise.” I save most of my outrage and passionate opinions for Twitter. Facebook is kinda dead IMO.
“People are craving acceptance and an effortless way to obtain a like-filled online ecstasy is to simply post the popular belief.”
Sums up everything perfectly. There are so many keyboard warriors on Facebook. I feel insecure while posting cat videos there. It used to be a good place to talk about opinions but now it’s just filled with pent up anger and essay length responses in return.
So glad u agree!!
Facebook is rewiring this generation’s brain a different way. They post curated content to get a feeling of acceptance. Soon, they won’t be able to handle the real world and rejections.
Though I really dislike social media and I don’t share my political beliefs publicly, I think there are some people who post articles for awareness more than for likes. But people are overwhelmed by the “for your awareness” posts and are tired of them. My recommendation would be to get rid of Facebook or unfollow all those who overpost. If others don’t change then we need to. I got rid of Facebook years ago because of its drama. I concluded that most won’t change, so I had to. The negatives outweighed the positives. It’s a beautiful thing to live in a 3D world (as I type in the 2D blog 😉 )
Most people don’t seem to be posting about their political beliefs in the sense that they aren’t writing or producing any original content about their beliefs. They’re just sharing (or recycling) memes with messages that get passed around or some other thing someone else – not them themselves – said. It’s a consumerist gesture which makes it far worse than just people blathering in one-sided fashion about their political beliefs. It’s worse because they see some ignorant message on a pretty picture, immediately identify with it without thinking, and share it so others have to scroll by it on a newsfeed. Who knows what the person really believes? He or she obviously doesn’t know because they just recycled someone else’s words they don’t even understand much or didn’t bother to read carefully. It’s idiotic. I’m sure some people are being very calculated about it and handpick what they share, but that’s probably a fraction of the population of these political social media users. The rest just press the button and serve their purpose in the recycling of borrowed content for money system.
I agree with tonymarkp, everything today is blathering that few really understand or want to constructively change. If every fool who ‘likes’ or ‘shares’, instead wanted to make a difference – teach a child, help a drug-addicted person, learn why some people are for and other people are against a particular subject — without resorting to shaming, name-calling or violence, that would be a start.
Amen. I deleted my facebook becauseI was so angry
Couldn’t agree more!
I’ve called it a “hot mess” for a while now, and your description is even more colorful. I’m not sure why you’ve allowed us to comment here, rather than first logging into Facebook. :O
I’ve un-followed just about everyone except the NY Mets feed. That’s pretty sad.
I agree with this, but I tend to not post political things to change minds. I’m doing it to work out my own feelings about them.
I am on Facebook just because! I really don’t have a meaningful connection to it.
I don’t think I fit with Facebook, partly due to my stance that people need to think and not just opine. Most of my writing has a social political stance. I don’t share much of my personal stuff, nor recommend this activity to anybody else.
I agree that this “like and following” thing is virtually meaningless on Facebook. I suspect that the majority of people have only a small number of people who actually check their posts out regularly despite proclaiming that they have a bazillion followers.
I like WordPress because the majority seem to be working at their craft.
Facebook is less about changing the world than about shouting ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you!’
Personally, I hardly use social media anymore. It’s all kinds of cluster-fucked in every way. I swear that it’s all infested with idiots these days. All the people with brains are going back to blogging and keeping out of the trash heap that is social media.
Ah, that’s refreshing to hear. “It’s all infested with idiots these days.” I agree, and it gets me down to realize how many there are. No one I know in real life even knows what a blog is, though…
I think you are too kind to Facebook and its users. I can barely stand it anymore (and my best friends are on there), and it is NOT effective for a business as it used to be……unless that business has ties to the political left or right. THEN you will see these memes suddenly appear and mindlessly be shared by the sheeple. Anyway….In regards to your Pat On The Back theory; it reminded me of a quote by Frank Zappa – “One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people’s minds.” – Nice post.
Thanks for the ‘like’ on my recent post. I dislike Facebook. I use it only to communicate in small closed groups, which is how it was first conceived, wasn’t it? Other than that, it’s crap.
I gave up on Facebook a few years ago due to the politics and racism I detected creeping in. And because, to be honest, most of it was crap. I’ve never missed it.
I was literally thinking about this today. Great post!
Thank u !!
I think you’re hilarious, in a good way. I avoid politics as much as I can publicly. I have both a private and a public Facebook. One contains important updates and information which might one day be useful. It has lots of caring and inspirational people on which I deeply cherish. The other one is private and is just family and junk. 🙂
Thanks for the compliment good sir! I only have a personal Facebook – I’ve gone years without posting now I do sarcastic comments.
Check this to know more fb facts
http://techgora.com/21-amazing-and-interesting-facts-about-facebook/
How did you get inside my head? This sort of thing is exactly why I’ve hunted down every weird, horror, space tech, insect, robotics, Lego, and B-movie Page just to fill my feed with some much of what I’m actually interested in that it all gets lost.
If someone I know is voicing something and there’s a discussion, that I can deal with. It’s the back and forth shots of political pictures with text attributed to who-knows and crap meme replies that makes my head ache. Better yet, if I know something was fabricated and point it out, that just makes me “part of the other side” instead of “guy who called Joey Facebook out on his bull.”
HA HA HA. One Of the reasons I am not on Facebook anymore. Got rid of it a LONG time ago, and haven’t looked back since.
Amen to that! My Facebook is full with the likes of these chickens clucking all day long about politics and I say Shut the #$@& up. People need to understand that if they have issues there are places to work on them instead of just venting. Just venting will get you nowhere.
/Thumbs up
Thanks my dude! Agreed
Another great post. Dude, I’ve had to “unfollow” about 300 of my 350 FB friends because of the political posts, and that includes my dad and sister. And, like someone above said, I hate all the ‘prayers’ comments… But I’m just a grumpy bastard.
I agree with you, it doesn’t make a difference. I don’t involve politics anymore on my FB because it was causing arguments between my family and friends. I’ve learned to stay away from religion and politics. Great post!
Thank you so much! You’ve got it all figured out
You are welcome, you live and learn.
That’s why I quit it.
Gonna keep it simple here, just like I do on Facebook. I’m a filmmaker, Hiker, musician, and artist. I post my creations in hopes of inspiration to others. I also volunteer in the community. I have a big friends list but only follow the folks who inspire me. Oh and I do something else that seems to be lost these days…. I get on the phone and actually talk to my friends and if they are local, I meet up with them face to face. Good post! Now let me inspire you on this topic! A little sumthin I did back in January when I was completely fed up with The earnings going on https://janmendoza.com/2017/01/25/people-of-earth-stop-being-stupid/
Oh, I definitely agree. It is a form of masturbation. People post those thinking they will make others open their eyes, which will suddenly change the world. They also want others to stroke their ego and agree with them. Of course, when some people try and engage in the presumed debate they get “deleted” from being “friends”. Hmmm…
What bothers me even more than political posts on facebook are political posts on LinkedIn. REALLY?!
The LinkedIn political posts take a lot of nerve – people abuse that site.
Amen 🤣
You and my husband would get along very we’ll. He has the same opinion as you do. I for one love face book but can’t stand the person who’s every other post is about Politics. yuk!! So I agree with you 100%
Like this – good stuff! I know where you’re coming from. I’m British and I admit I got sucked into this kind of things during and after the whole Brexit mess. The longer it’s gone on though, the more I got sick and tired of it all. I’ve been off Facebook for a few months now and don’t really miss it at all!
! So I correspond with you 100%
I have nominated you for Liebster Award, please check this link, hope you make a post for this.
https://officialaarish.wordpress.com/2017/11/20/liebster-award-2017/
Thanks I️ appreciate it!
But alas, we live in a world of free speech and even fools are allowed to express themselves. The convenient little thing about facebook is that we have the ability to limit what we see or who we see it from. The other amazing thing is, that we don’t have to respond or react to everything we read, no matter what it is. Not my monkeys, not my circus, kinda mentality.
Couldn’t agree more.
I have to admit, I am this person you speak of. I am one to rant and rave on political issues. But I am also involved in community and emailing the people I believe need to hear my opinion. I dont know what it is that drives me to do this other than being so pissed off. I get so angry when I see something I dont like. I do know how to have civil conversations with the opposite side, and I LOVE those conversations, so much more than the hate I get. I love learning new things too. But man, its soooo hard for me not to be on facebook and just have diarrhea of the mouth. Once I have written what I wanted to spew out there, I feel better inside. Its better for me because people will see it. I dont know how to not rant on facebook. Its a downfall I have. So I have made my last post on facebook tonight, and I will take myself off of fb after I collect and save my photos and give those whom I only know online my contact info. Part of me knows it falls on deaf ears. Part of me knows I am making someone roll their eyes and say, Here we go again. Part of me knows that yes, I am again repeating myself with the same old story. I just cant seem to stop. So its better that I just remove myself from this situation. And I love the term cluster fuck. 🙂 And I am totally OK with any response to this.
Hey I’ll be the first to admit- a good rant is therapeutic – no harm no foul! I️ think it’s good you have convos with the other side. Perhaps you can get more involved with your local chapter of (whatever party you are) and that way you can make an even bigger impact.
My gut tells me you are right. I wish you weren’t and I’m not going to stop expressing my political opinions on my blog and social media. I know I’m ‘preaching (only) to the converted’ but I live n hope that someone out there will see the light and begin to change their selfish behaviour.
Thank you for liking my post this morning.
No problem – I️ mean to be fair you are bringing awareness to an issue which is great – I️ just think getting more involved is a catalyst for even greater results. Thanks for stopping by.
lol… 🙂
it’s kinda sad Tony, but everyone seems so desperate to connect somehow!
As a social media professional, I hate to agree with you, as that’s my bread and butter… but it’s kinda become like the idiot-box, where everyone has got a chance to put in their two pennies worth (me included), unlike the TV.
Hahah I️ like that phrase “idiot box”
Reblogged this on Isma's Bites .
I think your whole rant is fine, but doesn’t matter. I mean, it’s politics. It’s their page, people can post about whatever they want. I mean you could have ranted about people posting pictures of their damn hamburgers every time they go out to eat, or that ‘nothing is official until it is on Facebook.” please check out my own post on this https://wp.me/p93r4p-52
#TwittersWhereItsAt
can I get an AMEN! By that, I mean I agree
AMEN
I’ve never had a FB account, but I’m on Twitter, and it’s the same over here. I mostly mute those people, because I just don’t want those political rants to litter my timeline, which almost completely consists of NASA tweets.
Where have you been all my life?!