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An Approach on Using Social Media for Good (and Not Lose Friends)
Recently a former high school classmate put up a post on a popular social media platform that, in all honest, somewhat ticked me off. I’ve known them long enough to know their politics are a bit different from mine. OK. Difference of opinion is a good thing, free speech and expression, and all that. I mentioned it to my wife and she said why do you still follow them then? Fair point. I suppose it didn’t feel right and maybe smacked of a 1:1 cancel culture moment if I would have summarily just disconnected from them. And as a psychologist, I also thought it could be they’re under stress as most of us can understand and needed to vent. I get that. And, if I countered them, it would likely not mitigate their stress but more likely doing so would risk increasing mine if we got into a row.
So, I took a breath. And I came up with an idea and I thought it may be of help to others feeling similar to me and offer a model or template for trying to be a helpful friend.
But first a secondary bit of context.
I have noted herein and numerous other places that the current pandemic has spurred what has become a meme of multitudes having become Covid-19 experts. And less funny, the proliferation of many hysterical and inaccurate feeds and posts that get propagated on various social media platforms.
