Peace Out, Facebook

When I joined Facebook in 2005 I had no idea this is where we would be. Had I known this I probably would have never signed up for an account? And honestly, I’m sick of “snoozing” or unfollowing people. This is why I have removed Facebook from my phone. If I could delete my account altogether I would, but because of professional obligations, I can not do that. What I can do (and have done) is turn off Facebook notifications, made it no longer possible to add me as a friend, and require approval for anything I’m tagged in - which will not be approved for the foreseeable future.

Why all this? Because here we are. All being experts in fields we are completely unqualified to be experts in. We (as a society) are sharing our opinions regardless of whose feelings may be at stake or sharing statuses and pictures to make it seem like we’re living our best days of living some fairytale life. We’re clicking through other people’s photos with envy and jealously because someone else’s life is seemingly so much better than ours even though they “don’t deserve it,” and sharing false information because there is a URL attached to it so it must be the truth. We’re commenting on headlines without even reading the article because we’re lazy. We’re sharing political facts (or “fakes”, as I call them) that are taken out of context or simply not true. We’re spewing hate because someone else’s view doesn’t match up with ours and therefore they are wrong.

All this social media garbage is happening while real problems are plaguing our country, problems that should have dissipated with the nation’s age and growth. It’s way past the of time for getting our heads out of the sand and understanding equality isn’t real. Equality is minuscule. It’s a buzzword. It’s something we say is improving but, if anything, has taken several steps back. Don’t believe me? Ask an African American, a Latino, a woman, a disabled person, a poor person, a gay person, or a transgender.

As a white male, I will never understand what inequality is like. I do, however, have empathy. (You have that trait too, or you did at some point in your life.) I fear for my friends whose skin color doesn’t match mine. Why? Because they “fit a description.” Do you know who else “fits a description”? Police officers.

The point is not all African Americans are bad and not all police officers are bad. But, if you can not agree that there is a serious race problem in our country then you are the part of the problem. Get your head out of the sand. The days of racist jokes and comments is beyond over. It’s time for us to really sit down with those with a different world view and figure out how to truly create change. Sadly, this much-needed change probably won’t exist in my lifetime or my kids’ lifetime either and if it doesn’t start soon it will never happen. The truth is all lives do not matter until all lives really do matter. This means all lives do not matter until all black lives matter.

If you disagree with this I implore you to have a civil openminded conversation with someone that doesn’t match you and has a perspective that is outside of your world view. I highly doubt that will happen though if you do indeed disagree with this.