Filtering

There is a person on my FB list who is having a slow meltdown. She's someone I've known for a long time. She can't sleep right now due to being in a lot of pain. I don't think she realizes she's ranting on Facebook, but she is. It's really sad and kind of scary. I know she has people tending to her. I wish they'd take her phone away from her. I don't think she's going to be too happy about what she's posting when she's in a better state of mind.

If there is anything scary about being online so much, it's the fact that the things we write aren't erased. For people who have the where with all to understand how to THINK before they post things, this isn't such a problem. But for people who don't have that ability, things can get embarrassing.

I see people write stuff like "this is ME!" or "I'm being REAL" as a kind of defense about the stupid shit they wrote. And yes, perhaps it is you, but when did we stop discouraging people from having some kind of 'Crazy Filter?'

If you're balking at the idea of having a filter, please consider this. I would assume you're trying to communicate with other people? Right? Will you actually communicate with them if everything you say just annoys the hell out of them? Do you honestly think your points will seem sound or reasonable if you just keep barraging them with typing? Would that work for you?

Just because we mostly type at each other these days doesn't mean we should lose the art of conversation. In fact, I think it's something we should work on, even more, because communication so vital to our lives. We all come online and head to these social media places because we crave contact with each other. But often when we get there, things just fall apart.

Hmm. I think I've stumbled onto a longer topic here. I'm going to discuss some of this over the next few nights and see where we can go with it.