Radio Ramblings: We need more cute babies, dogs and kittens, less hate

By Warren Affleck on February 6, 2020.

Social media has gone insane!

Alright, so maybe it isn’t social media itself, but more to what is tolerated, and seemingly wanted, by the bulk of people using social media platforms.

The heart of social media platforms like Facebook started out innocent, didn’t it? It was a way to connect us with friends and family. It allowed us to stay in touch with those farther away in a much more immediate fashion.

Imagine that 15 years ago grandparents had to wait days for a picture of their new grandchild. Now it’s simple and immediate. Those same grandparents can see grandbabies when they are hours or even minutes old.

But, like all good things, there are changes to the way it’s being used.

Oh sure, you can still get that picture to grandma and grandpa immediately. The downside to this is having to wade through the divisive aspects that I’ve watched permeate nearly every social media site. Everything from the completely fake news that seems to spew our news feeds, to the opinions about such news, some of it from people you never thought would think that way.

I really think this is due in large part to a certain degree of anonymity that has become part of a lot platforms, Twitter being a prime example.

You can easily change your screen name to something completely innocuous, so it doesn’t identify you in any form personally. That makes it easy to post nearly anything without retribution. There are legal ways you can be found out, but that type of thing happens pretty rarely if we are going to be honest about it.

It’s all mind-numbing when you have to scan through it to find that picture of a kitty cat playing foosball, or the story of a puppy who rescued a family from a polar bear. Yes, I know those are pretty wild examples, but I think you get where I’m going with this thought.

We need to get back to being nice to each other on social media and not trying to tear down someone else because they have a different idea or viewpoint.

We need to post more cute babies, toddlers trying to eat an entire cake without utensils, cats and dogs being goofy, and post less about the things that divide us as a society.

Social media is something we are all stuck with to a certain degree. I need to have it for my job, and yes, I have it so that I can talk with friends and family more readily.

But, my resolution this year, is that I won’t use it to share some political view on my personal pages that could be misconstrued and then I end up in some war of words over the internet.

Who would have thought I would ever miss the days when the worst thing about social media was someone posting what they had for dinner last night?

Warren Affleck is a news anchor and reporter at 102.1 CJCY.

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