Anyone who knows me knows how much I struggle with social media. The struggle is multifaceted, and I have strong opinions on everything from time spent to emotions elicited by “likes” on social platforms. I also struggle with the fact that much good can come from responsible social media use. People can connect, share cat videos, see amazingly doctored family photos showing how perfect life is…ok, there I go again letting my cynicism and bias have a voice in my social media opinion. I do acknowledge there are significant upsides to social media, but this blog post isn’t going to be about that 😉!
I am stuck by how much we care about other people’s opinions. We give so much power to others, allowing their often uniformed and ignorant opinions to impact our emotions. We also spend hours, literal hours, sifting through comments and scrolling our “likes,” “loves,” “tongue out smiley faces with or without tears,” etc. We do this without a thought to the amount of real living we are not participating in, nor do we consider how pointless this exercise is.
Even more fascinating is the concept of trolls. One definition says, “a troll is internet slang for a person who intentionally tries to instigate conflict, hostility, or arguments in an online social community.” These are sad individuals who lack the courage to engage in meaningful dialogue from a position of relative anonymity and distance.
I’m not so much intrigued by the troll, but by the attention people give the troll. It blows my mind that an individual we’ve never met can have any influence over our feelings, and cause us to engage, thinking we are going to somehow influence them. I’ve seen posts with thousands, sometimes millions, of comments inspired by a faceless cyber nobody who said something insensitive, rude, or somehow offensive and emotional to other readers. We mindlessly play our part, and if you respond, by definition, the troll has fulfilled their contribution to this world. You have given them voice and validated their existence as a troll by responding.
Think about that. The power to give voice to, or silence the troll is in our hands.
This all has me asking: why do you care? And before I appear too high and mighty, I also care, to an extent. I find that I can get wrapped into the socials and trollish (not sure if I just made that word up) exchanges, because honestly, we all love to feed our outrage sometimes. And the discourse is occasionally entertaining. But I typically look at my watch and realize how much time has been WASTED, with nothing to show for it, and not a single bit of productivity, positivity, or potential to be gained.
I challenge you to ask the same question. Why do I care? And be honest in your assessment. If it feeds your gossip habit, admit it! If you like the anger and emotion social media creates, own that junk! JUST BE HONEST, and you may find the power of social media, the troll, and other’s opinions lose their hold. This could free up more time for goodness then you ever imagined.
Written by David Gutierrez
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