Facebook, Friends & Politics…What Do You Think?

It seems to me, that comments on social media have stooped to an all time low this past year, mostly due to politics I believe. When I read a news article, and believe me, I use the word “news” loosely these days, I know that at least half of the comments will be negative. And it doesn’t matter what the article is about, someone is going to get nasty and then the negativity just flows with trolls attacking one another or whoever or whatever the article was about. A lot of times the comments end up not even having anything to do with the story.

Most of the time you can tell that some of those comments come from someone most likely getting paid to troll because they won’t have a picture and have less than 10 friends. But they do get people riled up, including me I admit, with the crap rhetoric they spew, intentionally trying to incite anger. See, and now I’m getting a bit heated just thinking of the hate I read. But this is from strangers, people I don’t know, so I can let those comments go, knowing that the haters tend to leave more comments than people who have real lives, things to do, real friends they spend time with. Versus hiding behind a screen, intentionally throwing racist, sexist, bigoted words out there.

It always amazes me a bit too when I read local news stories and people use their business FB while making nasty, hateful comments. If I see their business is local, I vow to never give them any of my business, much less my money. I’m talking vile statements that (hopefully) they would never say in public, in front of real people.

So again, most of that comes from strangers or in some instances, from people I’m “friends” with on FB but don’t actually know. But what happens when you start seeing those racist or sexist comments coming from real people you know, real friends?

Like I wrote earlier, I’ve seen more of these negative types of comments this past year, with the majority having to do with politics and the presidential race. Now I have no problem with people disagreeing. In fact when it comes to politics, about half my friends lean one way and the other half, the other way. And that’s just fine with me, as it keeps things interesting.

But lately I have seen some very racist comments from actual real life friends and I find myself thinking, “Who Is This Person?” I’ve seen some words slamming others because of their religion or sexual orientation that absolutely is demeaning. It really bothers me because those are words they would never say in front of me or use when we’re talking. But if they are writing them, is that really how they feel?

I can ignore memes I don’t think are tasteful and again, just scroll on by comments that are rude but use a racist or sexist phrase and that upsets me. Even if you say it was just in “jest” those words are offensive to those you are speaking about and to me when I read/hear them.

I wonder if anyone else has experienced this and if it bothers you? Perhaps I’m being too thin-skinned? But if that person spoke that way around me, we wouldn’t even be friends in the first place is how I feel. Do I confront those friends, discuss it with them personally? Or perhaps I block their comments so I don’t see them? Or just don’t spend as much time with them as I once did?

So my question to you is…

Have you ever unfriended or thought of someone differently based off something they wrote on social media? Did you talk to him/her about it? Or do you just ignore it?

What do you think?