Rick Sapp’s article “The 12-Step Program” on USCCA’s blog back on 17 February 2017 got me to thinking for quite a while about the amount of time and effort I spend on Facebook (FB) reading and responding to the most outlandish posts.
Basically, Sapp said that if you actually measure the amount of time you spend on FB, you will be shocked. Social media like FB, Twitter and Instagram are actually addictive because they provide instant feedback and arouse your emotions. Emotional arousal actually injects a tiny bit of dopamine into your nervous system so that–even if it makes you furiously angry–you gradually become addicted to the emotional rush over time. Time wasted on FB is time largely used to no effect. You cannot get that time back, and the time wasted results in zero change to much of anything. It is not the same thing as taking actual action. It only feels like it is.
I got onto FB almost a decade ago to stay in touch with friends and keep up with events in their lives and those of my family. Initially, it was a way to stay abreast of the lives of people I cared about and see their photos. That’s why FB calls your contacts “friends.”
But over time FB has morphed into something else. While it can still be used for its original purposes, more and more it has become a political forum where the posts focus mostly on outrageous news stories and on the opinions of FB trolls trying to stir up emotional reactions from rationally-thinking people. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg facilitates much of this by advocating a political “side” at his headquarters which does nothing useful except to generate more political debate. His algorithms then feed you more of whatever you eat.
Actual news services and fake news services then post multiple stories in the same way as trolls, trying to generate ever more collective outrage and argument on any variety of political topics. The Left argues their side, the Right argues their side, and the rest of us constantly suffer through it. Much like e-mail, the Internet also provides a layer of autonomy and safety for posters, encouraging writers to say things on their screens that they would never say to another person’s face. As with e-mail, “tone” is particularly difficult communication to convey with only the written word, so that what is often meant as cynical satire or a joke is often taken literally at face value, and things meant to be serious are also often taken as jokes. Sarcasm is also a particularly difficult tone to communicate through the written word. All of this leads to miscommunication that unnecessarily inflates FB user anxiety and emotions.
For many who like to debate (yes, I am one) this stuff is sometimes a form of entertainment. For others, it is a forum where they feel they feel safe to say whatever they really think; a place where their voice will finally be heard and they can say anything without having to suffer any real consequences for it. For others, it is a forum to post views and get emotional support through “me too” agreements from others. All of these things, along with the dopamine injection of emotional arousal, become highly-addictive over time.
As with Mr. Sapp, I sometimes struggle to remain “fair and balanced” on FB. I try to use logic in my posts. As much as possible, I try to keep my emotions out of my arguments, and fall back on time-tested reason and logic. But I am only human–much as I hate to admit it–and in the interests of honesty (and to be congruent with “fairness and balance”) I realize I must be aware of my own beliefs and prejudices. No matter how hard you try to keep your emotions out of your arguments, particularly stupid or obstinate people can wear you down over time, until you finally get fed up and mentally want to strangle them. This is only human. I think one must constantly question one’s own motives in order to determine if one is arguing reasonably or emotionally.
The bottom line is, you can lose hours and hours of time on FB reading and posting comments. Sure, it may be well-reasoned and excellently-worded, but it is frequently quarrelsome and often devolves to mere taunts and sneering. Any time you attacker the arguer and not his or her argument, you commit a logical fallacy and thus lose the argument. Here is my point: beyond the entertainment value and your daily dopamine shot from the latest outrage du jour that someone posted, what does it really accomplish to red and rant on FB other than to leave you frustrated, furious, upset or self-righteous?
Look, Rosie O’Donnell is not going to read my FB post, board a plane and leave the country merely because I remind her that she promised to do so if Trump won the election (no matter how much I really, REALLY want her to keep her word. By the way, if you don’t keep your word you are, by default, a LIAR). Madonna is not going to be sent to jail on terror threat charges just because she “thought” about blowing up the White House merely because I claim on FB that she should go to jail (and really, she only thought about it—thinking about a crime is not illegal; conducting one is). Left-wing fascist groups like AntiFa, BAMN and the Knights of Socialism are not going to stop being jerks, bullies and fascists who beat people up who disagree with them, nor stop their assault on Free Speech, merely because I tell them to do so on FB. Trump is not going to be impeached or become a dictator just because someone claims he is on FB. Posting your thoughts and feelings (emotions) about current events on FB is often emotionally satisfying, and often even a little cathartic, but it really achieves nothing. The people you are railing about and against on FB ARE NOT READING YOUR POSTS. Only your FB friends are. Commentary on FB accomplishes nothing.
That’s right. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada.
Thoughts and ideas, even when re-enforced with great passion, are just that: thoughts and ideas. They are electrons circulating in your brain, nothing more. They are not physical reality in this dimension. Until I type them into my computer, i-Pad or smart phone, they are nothing tangible at all, just thoughts, and even after I input them they are merely organized electrons circulating on the Internet, promulgating my thoughts and ideas, but nothing more. They change absolutely nothing in the real world. They are certainly not the same thing as taking action, which actually does change things, and altogether nothing like taking effective action.
Scoring a point against your opponent in an argument on FB may be emotionally satisfying, but it achieves nothing concrete, nothing tangible with respect to reality. How many peoples’ minds will truly be changed by you making your point FB? Some people will agree, some people will disagree, and others will merely be amused or become enraged. A select few may learn a better way to structure their arguments with logic, but it changes nothing of worth. More than likely, you’ll simply get Likes from those who agree and blocked by those who don’t. FB posts are really no more effective than posting a Letter to the Editor at the local newspaper. Interesting maybe, satisfying perhaps, amusing at times, but of no real value.
Action is what makes a difference. And effective action makes the most difference.
What do I mean? Well, let’s take for example the rage that is going around the country among the youth and fanatical activists these days: protesting. It is completely true that the Constitution provides protections for peaceful assembly. Assembly is a right, and protesting peacefully is also a time-honored tradition. I agree with that Constitutional right completely. Unfortunately, many people do not seem to understand the “peaceful” part, falsely assuming that just because they are outraged and upset (and apparently unable to control themselves), they can then riot, burn, loot, assault people and destroy property. Such actions are CRIMES that are blatantly against the law. These things are not covered or protected by the right of peaceful assembly in the Constitution.
I personally have little respect for the practice of protesting. Like FB, I think it is largely a waste of time, a way to display public temper tantrums perhaps, or to virtue signal; a way to make you feel like you are doing something that makes a difference, but without actually doing something that truly changes anything. At best, it is a display of feelings about something. Protesting creates mobs, and mobs usually succumb to group-think, which is how lynch mobs get started.
My comment will, no doubt, outrage many people who believe protesting is somehow an honorable or courageous activity. Sometimes it is, but most times in this country it is not. Thus, I consider protesting largely a useless effort. Yes, it does get a message out that a group of people oppose something. But so what? You can do that on FB or with a town hall meeting just as effectively (and without the mind-numbing hive-mind idiocy of having to recite childishly stupid rhyming chants). Even if the protest does succeed in getting a mayor or a politician to change his or her position on something (after all, many politicians have no backbone), it is usually more from fear of having to deal with protesters than any real sense of moral right or wrong.
An example of this from a few years ago was the cowardly act of Democrat Martin O’Malley, who originally advocated “All Lives Matter,” in his response to Black Live Matter and then suddenly changed his position when booed by BLM advocates at a meeting. While it did demonstrate emotional and political cowardice on O’Malley’s part, doing so did not invalidate the correctness of his original statement that ALL lives matter. He simply caved to the crowd, whom he felt had turned against him. In effect, he was bullied into changing his position by fear of the BLM members because he wanted their affection and support, not because he thought their position was correct. The BLM movement then concluded that this was a victory that legitimatized their position, but in fact, it was actually a case of them successfully carrying out bullying.
Another problem I have with protesting is that it is largely an unthinking “hive-mind” type of social activity. Like the Borg, protesters tend to be “assimilated” into an agenda-driven collective. That is the instinctual response of herd animals—beasts in a herd or fish in a school–not that of independent free thinkers. There is a belief among many people that assumes (falsely) that collective consensus somehow bestows validity. It does not. This is the Appeal to Popularity fallacy. These are the type of people who follow fads, or go along with the crowd, which then becomes a mob. Just because the majority of people agree about something does not automatically make it either right or valid, because a majority is merely a preponderance of numbers that can quickly become a tyranny of the many.
A bunch of people standing in a crowd, blocking traffic and holding signs with ignorant and often poorly-written statements on them, clogging roads and inconveniencing everyone, while chanting mindless rhyming chants that could have been written by a four-year old—and believing that by solidarity they have a consensus that somehow makes them right–is a method I find inanely stupid. It is consensus-thinking fueled by outrage and emotion, not by logic or reason, and I find it a dangerous equation that easily degenerates into mob violence.
So, while I do think of protesting as an action, I do not consider it effective action other than as a bullying device. And for many, protesting is simply emotional salve: they feel like they are actually doing something important (when what they actually are doing is standing in a crowd freezing at a social event, holding badly-made signs and making stupid chants). As a result, I don’t consider protesting an especially effective form of action, and certainly not a brave one, as there is little to fear when surrounded by a crowd of supporters. In fact, it often creates the very opposite effect of what protesters intend, when by their actions they are perceived by the public as crazy malcontents.
Is there a time to protest? Sure, when your government is actually being tyrannical and taking away your rights under the Constitution. But even then, is protesting going to be effective? Probably not. The protests against English tyranny, for example, like the Boston Tea Party, actually changed little (other than destroying a lot of tea). That event did not drive the British out of America. In fact, it was a legal crime, as the tea was private property destroyed by an angry mob. Actual change required an armed revolution–citizens with guns going out and actually fighting the greatest military machine on Earth at the time to win America’s freedom. Protesting was ineffective, other than for generating emotional support and getting notice.
An effective action would be actually pushing legislation that changed an outcome, not grouping up like lemmings and running toward whatever cliff the mindless mass decides to jump off of. In the easiest of constructs, an example of this would be a person who has a beef with police brutality who then goes and actually becomes a police officer to do some good, to fix the perceived problem at its source. Or a person who has problems with certain laws, or the practice of medicine, who then become a lawyer, doctor, or otherwise actively submits legislation to actually affect the situation. Effective action produce solutions. In grim times, it may actually mean resorting to violence to restore Constitutional law when all other means have been expended. If the government truly became tyrannical—say by suspending Constitutional rights by legislation, or by actual force—then the people would have no other alternative than to use violence in order to restore the Constitutional rule of law. But that is patriotism, not anarchy. But violence–though seldom the correct choice–is sometimes the only choice, and in those rare instances it is an extremely effective one. When the government and law enforcement fail to do their jobs, then the People must step forward and do it if there is to be order. That is effective action. Effective action is doing something and getting a result. It is not merely whining on FB or at a protest. Effective action actually accomplishes something. Chanting and holding signs–much like posting emotional tirades on FB–are really nothing more than emotional masturbation.
So, this brings me back to how much time I spend on FB arguing with people who are supposed to be my friends, but who have already made up their minds on a certain subject and whose opinions I am not going to change. This is far removed from the original purpose of FB: checking up on my friends and family. It is literally time spent on ineffective action; time I cannot get back; time that I could have spent taking more effective action rather than just griping and arguing with the those who will not be convinced. Time I could have spent with my family, my children and my friends; people with whom I could have had a nice, friendly experience with during the time I spent on FB.
At the end of your life, there will be a mental review of all of the times you’ve had and all the things you have done or experienced. What do you want that summary to consist of? Good memories and good times, of laughter and love, or memories of frustration, hurt, anger and disagreement over things you argued over, but really had no control over anyway?
Except in certain circumstances, I try to no longer post political statements on my FB page anymore. I reserve them for blogs. People who come to a blog know they are coming to read an opinion, not to check up on family and friends. I keep this away from FB so that my opinions do not auto-post on my friends’ pages, sending them political statements they didn’t ask for, and which emotionally stimulates them to agree with or debate me. Even so, I will occasionally get caught up responding to their political statements when they post them to my page. Sometimes it feels like you have to do it, but it is still largely a waste of time. Sometimes it feels good to point out their hypocrisy, or to play Devil’s Advocate with the structure of formal argument. It can be entertaining and fun, but don’t delude yourself. It changes nothing.
What I have seen happen on FB is that many friends who are not mature enough to disagree with each other without anger often make their arguments personal attacks, and then you see people who were formerly friends “unfriending” each other over silly political disagreements. Sometimes this unfriending is merely a tired effort to escape the endless political debate, and sometimes it is based on real anger and hatred generated toward those former friends who dared to disagree with them. That’s hardly the way to treat “friends.” Either way, two people who were once friends are then no longer friends, and that is a sad and unfortunate situation. Losing friends is not the way to create a more loving community on FB. Short of a personal attacks, I never unfriend anyone I accept as a friend on FB (though I will sometimes “unfollow” them if their posts are particularly annoying—sorry, I don’t have the time or desire to be annoyed all of the time—my life is too important).
So, if you find yourself addicted to FB, you are not alone. I am not advocating people stop using FB, but rather that they use it more for was intended to do: check on your friends, share good times and problems, not to post political diatribes.
The first step is recognizing you’re addicted. Then it’s simply finding a way to ween yourself off FB and instead use it for the purposes that you originally joined for. That, of course, is ultimately a personal choice, but for myself, I have realized that a lot of time I’ve wasted on FB could have been spent more productively doing other things like writing my books, working out at the gym, or having a good time hanging out with people I love and care about.
I think people should spend less time on FB and enjoy life a little more. We need more good times and more laughter. The media—which are, after all, money-making businesses–will create a far grimmer view of life for you than most reality actually is. Ignore them a bit and smell the roses. Laugh, joke, have a good time with people you care about. After all, you are what you eat, and if you ingest a steady diet of political frustration—most of which you can do NOTHING about—you’ll only end up being frustrated, sick and unhappy. None of us have enough time left in this world to waste being unhappy.
I’ll try to find a way to use FB that supports my life and my community. Don’t let it be only a place to go for more political bashing…unless you really like that stuff.