To those who don’t understand why they annoy people on social media, here’s a pointer or two.
When you have a thought in your head that starts with ... “You know what I don’t understand ....”
DON’T look for answers on Facebook.
Keep it to yourself, or go to your own tight circle of friends and look for a like-minded answer.
Another idea is to try empathy before spouting off with your opinions — that you are always very quick to point out that you have every right to spout out.
When you write .. “OK. But what about ...” and your “what-about” is at a complete opposite tangent to the issue at hand, don’t be surprised that you will ruffle some feathers.
In the last few days, following the shooting deaths in the New Zealand mosques, there have been some obtuse comments posted on social media sites and comment sections in not just larger media centres but also right here in our region too.
It’s disheartening.
Much of it is also completely ludicrous or based on such one-sided opinion that it would be comical if it wasn’t so offensive.
For example. “Radical Muslims Murder 32 Nigerian Christians, Torch Church in Brutal Attack” That headline seems to have some people wondering why the ‘mainstream media’ doesn’t report on all attacks.
Well ... and you’re not going to like this if you believe that headline ... it’s probably because, to the best of our knowledge, that attack didn’t actually happen. Granted there are terrible tragedies committed all over the world, and especially in war-torn or religiously-divided areas ... but none of Nigeria’s news sources have any similar headlines. We know because we checked ... a month’s worth of news.
Why would the publisher of a little newspaper in northeastern Alberta spend an hour researching a headline from the other side of the world? Well, because on a local social media page someone from around these parts commented on the vigil being organized by local groups for the New Zealand attacks — by writing, “You know what I don’t understand, what about the Radical Muslims ...”
The POST’s own Facebook page also received a message from another local person who supplied a website link to a story and asked us, “why isn’t this on the news?”
So we checked for her too.
In fact, only the one link that the woman sent to us, from CBN News — the Christian Perspective — has the headline. It’s the same one that continues to make the rounds on social media.
Free speech is important and people have every right to their thoughts and opinions — but so much of the rhetoric lately — whether in response to the mosque killings, or politics close to home or the economy — is going by unchecked. And worse than that, it’s being spread as fact.
It’s hard to understand why people simply accept someone else’s opinion without checking it themselves. The more people who spread their un-educated opinion, the less value there is on the truth. Spreading comments and thoughts with no factual backing — and hiding behind the banner of ‘free speech’ — has become too cheap and easy.
The worst thing about free speech is that it’s free. But don’t just believe me, check for yourself ... please!
