It was silliness at its finest.
On my Facebook page, I posted that “I think I just received a marriage proposal online!” I posted this because it was one of 16 options I was given for having commented on a similar post on a friend’s page. Her post was “Mayonnaise on Reese’s peanut butter cups is sooo good!”
She messaged me, saying it’s a Facebook game for autism awareness and now I had to post one of the 16 options that she gave me, which, being the good friend I am I did — though begrudgingly. I’m not a fan of these type of chain things, but I am a big fan of the friend so I played along.
I had 37 friends comment. And most of the comments were hilarious: “Wow. Does she have a single sister?”; “Is this another scheme to get gifts, Roger?”; “With any luck you will inherit $100 million from someone in Nigeria, also.”; “We better be invited.”
Full disclosure: The vast majority of my friends know I’m single and not dating anybody. I even said as much in the midst of the Facebook post/comments: “Ladies and gentlemen: I never said I was getting married. It says I ‘accepted a marriage proposal online.’ As in, perhaps, my friend announced online he had gotten engaged and, me being the great friend I am, I “accepted” that proposal and the fact he told me about it…online.”
That somehow led to a friend of mine inquiring as to whether or not I was gay.
He even outed me, right there on my own Facebook page. I didn’t know I was in, which I’m not (and as long as I’m quoting Seinfeld, ‘Not that there’s anything wrong with that.’).
The comment led to another friend coming to my defence and taking exception to the other friend outing me, which led to a debate between my two friends who have never met.
I reined both of them in, saying if you want to have a debate use the Facebook messenger service; don’t hijack my wall.
Both friends apologized. All is well.
But that, in a nutshell, is why I have contemplated leaving social media. The constant negativity in the comments section; people being judge, jury and executioner on matters; the venomous posts about Trump, Trudeau, Christy Clark, John Horgan. There are truly a lot of angry, misinformed, uneducated people out there.
You can have different opinions but you can present them in a respectful manner.
And I have no idea how an online marriage proposal relates to autism awareness.
I have personal Facebook and Instagram accounts, and a Twitter account strictly for work. I like Facebook. It keeps me close to my friends and I enjoy the humour that is displayed on there. I love looking at photos on Instagram, some of which inspire me to be more creative with my own photography.
Twitter ranks third out of the three. A distant third.
It would be good, I think, to take a social media break but I can’t really leave altogether because Twitter, Facebook and Instagram play a huge role in my job; they’re pretty much job requirements.
I did Google “leaving social media good for mental health” and discovered 15 pages of articles, my favourite being from Harper’s Bazaar magazine from Jan. 4, 2017: “More people want to quit social media than smoking in 2017.”
I’m guessing the same rings true for the new year.