BFTP: Personal, professional, political: the social media quagmire

I have always been, and remain, a reluctant Twitter user.* And lately Twitter is conspiring to make me even less of a fan. Along with other social media forums.

To the extent possible, I have attempted to keep my political, personal, and professional lives somewhat separate on social media. Reading blogs and Twitter satisfied my FOMO by linking me to the best thinkers and newest publications in education and technology. Facebook let me keep up with friends and relatives, providing as well an endless supply of wit, humor. and mindless trivia. And well, those old fashioned things called newspaper and magazines, both online and in print, were my source of reasoned political opinion from both the left and the right.

While there has always been some overlap in social media, I felt I had been able to keep communication spheres somewhat distinct. But the lines over the past few years have blurred.

Politics has wedged its way into both my personal and professional communication arenas. While education has always had a political element (I was the state school library organization's legislative chair for many years), tweets and posts have become more about national politics in general. Friends and relatives now share more political diatribes, satire, and outrage than they do photos of entrees and grandchildren. Just how sad is that? And our mainstream media has become more overtly polarized as well.

It is the satire and outrage that I find most distressing. Both sides of the political spectrum have been sinking to ever lower levels of communication. Do I really need to see one more Photoshopped version of President Trump as a pumpkin? Do I need to see any more posters that question the intelligence of mask wearing (pro or con)? I really wish the level of our political discourse would rise to the level of polite debate rather than hurled insults with all the depth of a bumper sticker.

Perhaps the spaces between personal, political, and professional spheres of communication have always been an illusion. And maybe I am the only person who needs the occasional respite from the loudly banging drums and blaring trumpets of political screed. Or maybe I am too far into geezerdom to "get" social media.

But thank you my friends and colleagues for keeping politics from your tweets and posts to the extent your conscience allows. 

* Discussion via bumper sticker, The 140 character discussion, Poster Power on Twitter, 10 useful Twitter alerts, I killed my Twitter account, etc.

Original post 8/21/17

Comments

[Kenn Gorman]

Well said!

I have recently realized that my Facebook account has become a meme where I post memes.