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Sunday, October 23, 2016

Don't Read The Comments

Over the past year or so I have learned a new mantra:  Don't read the comments!.  You see I for quite some time I have had this love/hate relationship with social media.  While it is a great tool for connecting and creating discourse it is also a lousy tool for everyone inserting their opinion when no one cares.  I tell you, if you want to see humans at their worst read the comments from a post or from an article.  It is as if people think that the stupid, hateful, mean, and ugly things that they say are ok because of the First Amendment or because we "live in America" and blah blah blah.  Have we always been a society filled with hate and rage or is this a new phenomenon created by the rise of a certain presidential candidate?

It shouldn't bother me right?  They are just words.  They are people I don't even know right?  Eh not always.  Sometimes they are former friends, classmates, and coworkers.  Reading some of the vile things that people post and comment on makes me sick to my stomach.  It makes me question the people who I thought that I knew and it makes me question my own judge in character.  It also makes me realize just because someone might know me does not mean that it will influence their thoughts or opinions on issues that directly effect me as a black woman.

But maybe is the worst when I read the comments of strangers.  It is in these incidents that I instantly feel the need to prove my point with logical statements and facts thinking that maybe, just maybe I can change one mind today.  Who am I kidding?  They don't want to change.  They are perfectly happen living in denial, ignorance, and/or filled with hate.  I always have told me that you can't change others you can only change you react to others, but why can't I follow my own advice?

So everyone save yourself the trouble and the energy by following my advice:  Don't read the comments!