Hope is peed on by social media

What America means to people now is particularly important for where America will go in the future. Today I read a well written piece by Andrew Sullivan in regards to freedom. Warning: it is a long article and 2 others are added after everything.

As a kid I had a skewed perspective of America. The patriotism I had was huge. We were one big melting pot and I lived in a poor communities, so I saw this. I went to a church that did a lot of missions to other countries, and many members were people from countries like Ethiopia. While I experienced a lot of shit in my life, I had an idealism that in this country I could make more of myself. My overall place was low income, but that did not mean opportunity was necessarily denied to me. ((Reality is debatable but not the point of the overall post I'm making.))

That kind of perspective of my country help keep my fire ignited. Out of my family (mom, dad, sister, grandparents), I am the first to obtain my AA and then BS. Both of those with cum laude. I do not care if people know, but it is relevant to this topic. My belief that in this country I had the opportunity to pursue these degrees if I worked hard enough was a fundamental training that I had from childhood. Yes, I was "poor" but working hard would open doors.

Lately, I have lost that idealism it seems. Part of it is still there, and I sometimes find myself looking up master degree programs. At the same time, I have never been more disappointed in what I see as current American culture. The article I read today wonderfully highlighted what bothers me the most. "Us" versus "them" constantly being peddled to extremes. If I don't like Trump, obviously I am leftists. I remember seeing this strongly in Obama's first run for presidency.

The memory is vivid. I stood with fellow college students watching him make yet another vague speech. Baffled, it went to commercial and I know someone objected. That's when concerns with his platform was literally thrown out as "well you're racist if you don't like him". Staring at that person, I was horrified that the person standing before me did not even know my name, but decided I'm obviously racist. We've stood there 5 minutes in silence, she takes one look at my skin color to tell me I'm the racist one for having a political opinion that did not jive with her own? It unsettled me first then and extended bad experiences I had in high school. Where race card was used to limit me in some way.

Since then I can successfully say both political extremes are horrible to deal with. Ignorance and intolerance at both ends. Worse than that, they control the conversation. Social media seems to only accentuate their control of the conversation. If I could do one thing with the snap of my fingers, it would be to entirely remove social media capability. Go back to the time where expressing opinion to someone required being connected to them in some way. Same forum? More than likely you had mutual friends. Party? Most individuals are not interested in ruining the party for others. Where political and religious debates were made with individuals.

((My oldest decorating her wall.))

To be clear, we did not debate better before social media, but it was much less impersonal. Conversations on the topic were influenced by printed media, but social media gives platforms to people media would not have given light of day. There is something to be said about vetting. I know this is not the ultimate solution, and blogs are not part of social media (Facebook, Myspace, Reddit perhaps, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat). So there are still ways to connect to non-conventional printed media YAY. The tribalism of the "we" online, found many places outside of race, is only made worse by these platforms.

Is it wrong of me to hope that social media is dying? I saw the start and end of Myspace. I have seen younger generations move away from Facebook. So I watch, waiting to see what direction internet bodies migrate to and hope the next platform is less tribalistic. Where people do not simply surround themselves with people who will only agree with them. Even if it's optimistic, I do truly hope to see that and more respectful exchanges of ideas.