The wonderings, ponderings and other 'ings' of me. Lifestyle, review, news and opinion posts. Chic with a hint of sarcasm... hopefully!

Wednesday 8 February 2017

I'm Quitting Social Media

Oh Good Lord no not me!  

This is something I've seen a few friends say recently and a couple have actually sworn off it altogether.  Not in that Essena O'Neil Instagram queen way, its more a 'social media is a mean place and I can't take how horrible everyone is' situation. 

And I get it. What with the shit show of referendums and elections that 2016 threw at us I've seen my fair share of hate spewed rhetoric myself.  I've been blocked by republicans who told me the Muslim culture are trying to kill us all!  And Democrats who didn't like that I insisted that not all republicans are evil. 

But I've also seen the other side. 

I've spent a whole evening joking with and tweeting complete strangers from Canada, some of whom promised to adopt me! I've had correspondence (sort of) with @technicallyron @jkrowling and @thelastleg, guys who have - and this is no exaggeration - literally kept my spirits up and inspired me to fight on while some of the most terrible situations in the world were unfolding. 

While the blocking and brain numbing chats with right wing "Christian" conservatives weren't particularly fun they were at least conversations. Which is what I believe we need this year. Conversations.  With people we do not agree with.   This doesn't mean we have to take abuse or ignorance.  And doesn't mean we can be patronising or condescending in response either (though a well placed gif does go down quite well).  



I believe we can't go on assuming those that think politically differently to us are idiotic or evil, but we can't shut down to them either.  And while I understand taking a break from social media I really don't feel shutting off from the best way to converse and correspond with the world is going to work.

Twitter and the like may never be the friendly-kitteny-soft-safe-space it once was.  But like I've said before If you can't see anything nice on your feed that means its your turn, you're up!

We need to be the change we want to see on Social Media.




Alright? lets get to work. 

Gifs from Gify
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