A question of friends...

In the age of Facebook, or any other online social media, it's easy to amass lists of names of people who consider themselves as "friends". For some reason or other, at one time, you had something in common - maybe a game you played or a forum you frequented. So when that "friend request" came, you didn't think twice about approving it. At least I didn't. On Facebook, I have 302 friends. In real life I don't even think I know 302 people. But on any given day, in my newsfeed, I get notifications from what the most active of those 302 are up to.

Most of time, I read those notifications and move on. Sometimes I'll like them or reply in some way. Sometimes I have to bite my tongue and move on faster because I've found out that there are some real doozies in that 302. As I've said before, the events since the last shooting incident have really changed me in many ways. I think I have always been a very tolerant and open minded person. I believe in the freedom of speech and stand by that right. But my tolerance for those that use that right to spew hatred and intolerance has just simply ceased. This week, on Facebook, I have 302 friends...I used to have 305. For the first time since I started using the internet, which has been a long, long time, I have completely stopped interacting with someone. Three people, in fact. I thought about it for a long time before I "unfriended" them. It seems so silly really. Does it make a difference? It's just the internet. That's a phrase I have used on other people before when they've gotten upset about something on Facebook. It's just the internet. And who are these people to me, really? More than likely I would never, ever meet them in real life and my opinion of their beliefs did not matter a diddly squat to them so would it even matter?

Yet....

Their beliefs were racist. And homophobic. And hurtful. And I have dear and loving people in my life of various ethnic backgrounds and various sexual identities and I love them in REAL LIFE and I would no more let anyone hurt them than I would hurt them myself. So, allowing shit like that to pop up in my newsfeed and not do anything about it seemed complacent and almost as though I was an accomplice in their miserable dogma. I tried to reason with them. I tried to explain. But there was no use so, in the end, I did it. Click. They were gone.

It felt strangely good.