At times I would like to expand my social media presence beyond Facebook, but I do not know where to start. I use Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends, mostly people that I have not seen in a while. But I also have my close friends, my immediate family, neighbors, and my kids’ friends’ parents on my friend list. My usual posts are about my family. I post photos of my kids, their accomplishments, our trips, funny experiences, etc. I really try to stay away from getting political because it can get so polarizing. I have some conservative friends—mainly from high school or family friends—that even though I do not agree with them, I’m not willing to take on their beliefs.
Not all my liberal friends feel that way. Some of them have told me they have lost friends due to their political posts. I have been known to hide a few conservative friends, so I don’t have to see their posts. Sometimes I feel like that is cheating.
My son was home for several weeks over the summer and we talked a lot about the state of politics right now and about how not saying something makes us feel bad, but we don’t know where to begin. I make very light-hearted posts about how we counted 21 Trump signs on our way to the bike path and only one Biden sign, so we decided to stop there, with a photo as proof. I would like to be bolder and say in my posts what I truly believe and stand up for my beliefs. I do not know if I can. We live in such a weird time.
Many years ago, maybe in 2002 or 2003, I worked with a women whose son went to St. John’s Prep and chat rooms were new. As a student he wrote to another student something to the effect of “we should maybe get guns and take them out” speaking about other students who didn’t agree with their liberal beliefs. The student who got the message was scared and told the authorities and the student who wrote the phrase was charged with terroristic threats and kicked out of school. At the time I was appalled. I had two young sons and had no idea of what they might get up to in the coming years no matter how much direction I tried to give them. Afterall we were living in the “Jack Ass” age as well. When I was young, kids got a break, whether it was good or bad, and second chances. No tolerance was unheard of.
As the election approaches, I do not know what I will do. I will make sure the world knows I did not vote for Trump but whether I will have the nerve to say more, time will tell.