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Eric Young
Eric Young
Eric Young
Eric Young
I've always been a fan of social media.
It's funny, because I'm not an overly social person. But ever since social media was a thing, I've enjoyed using it to share parts of my life with others and to get a look in at what other people are up to.
It started with MySpace. That was the first real social network I was a part of. I remember taking time to organize my top friends. I had a blog on my MySpace page — one that I would likely be quite embarrassed to go back and read today if I hadn't deleted it years ago. I was a different person back then, interested in different things. I was young and stupid and thought I knew everything.
Maybe only some things change.
I remember when I first heard about Facebook. It was this exclusive site that only college kids could use. You had to have a college ID from one of the approved colleges to even sign up for it. I remember how exciting it was when Central Michigan University was added to the service, and I could finally sign up for it.
That being said, I was never really a fan of Facebook. I thought Myspace was better. I liked the ability to blog. I liked the customization that MySpace allowed, even though the majority of people who customized their pages probably shouldn't have. I liked that you could have a song automatically play when someone came to your MySpace page, as if I could annoyingly force my musical preferences on everyone who visited.
Facebook didn't offer what MySpace did, but more people signed up for Facebook than MySpace, and I found myself using it more and more.
I've always been a fan of Ashton Kutcher, and I remember when I heard he was using a new social network called Twitter. I signed up immediately. Kutcher was the first account I followed. I loved Twitter from the beginning. Back then, there were so few people on it that you could actually watch the full Twitter feed refresh as people posted new messages. You could literally read every message posted.
The first time I realized the value of Twitter was during that year's Daytona 500. I think it was 2008. As a NASCAR fan, I enjoyed the fact that I could "tweet" about things that happened in the race and people I had never met who were on the other side of the country could have a conversation with me. It was amazing to me. I still love Twitter. I still check it several times a day.
I remember signing up for Instagram, and Snapchat. There were others that either died off or never caught on: Daily Booth, Foursquare, Beme, Vine, and Google-Plus. I had accounts on all of them, and probably many more. Whenever I hear of a new social network, I always sign up. I have a TikTok account, though I've never posted anything.
Through social media I have been able to better connect with my family and friends. I still speak regularly to friends from high school, which never would be possible without social media. It's been a wonderful tool.
But lately I have really come to hate much of it. Especially Facebook, for whatever reason. I don't know why Facebook is the one that stands out to me the most, but it is. Maybe it's because it's the most active of the ones I use. Maybe I know more people on it. Maybe I'm friends with more people who do not share my interests. I don't know what it is.
When Facebook was all about sharing what you were eating for lunch and posting status updates that made it seem like your life was better than it actually was, I really enjoyed it. I want to see everybody's baby pictures and photos of their dogs.
But lately it seems Facebook has become a place to spread hate, to argue with people, to call people stupid, and to share false information with no basis in fact. As a journalist, all of the misinformation on Facebook hurts me, almost as much as the number of people who believe it. I spend my life trying to help get facts out there about what is going on, and the hours I put in daily are superseded by a meme made by some random person with no knowledge of the situation.
At one time, social media brought us together. It still brings me closer to people I wouldn't be close to with without it.
But it's also pushing us apart. It is helping to divide the country more than it already is. It has polluted the news landscape to the point where it's nearly impossible to figure out what is true and what isn't, and who is biased and who isn't.
Social media has become a cesspool. It makes me so angry, so unhappy to use it. But for some reason I am unable to stop.
I just want things to go back to the way they were. I want the left and the right to work together, and I want to go back to not knowing which friends are hateful or racist.
Social media has given us unprecedented access to the lives of our friends, a look into their thoughts and beliefs.
Maybe, just maybe, we were better off when we didn't have that.
Eric Young is the editor of the Huron Daily Tribune. He can be reached at eric.young@hearstnp.com.
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June 06, 2020 at 05:00PM
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Social media has become a cesspool of hate - Huron Daily Tribune
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