Facebook is a constant siren. Not just to check everyone's statuses, though that is tempting too. No, Facebook constantly taunts me to jump into debates that will ultimately be meaningless.
It comes at me from all angles. I see absurdities in all sorts of bold positions that people take, but my fatal flaw is that I don't usually see the absurdities in my own positions. "Of course that's a ludicrous position to take," I think as I start whipping out a brilliantly witty remark at my friend's (or worse, a friend of my friend's) expense. Then, I usually (and thankfully) realize that maybe I shouldn't comment like that. At first it's usually out of concern for the obvious faux pas, but then it starts impossibly sinking in that maybe I'm also somewhat wrong. Maybe my comment isn't as bulletproof as I am imagining it to be, impossible as it seems right now.
Many times I have dialed myself back in time to avoid being, if only temporarily, yet one more idiot shouting an opinion on Facebook.* While I do not always feel in my gut it is the right decision at the time I always feel that it was a day or two later. Sometimes with my bolder friends I don't dial myself back as much as I should. The only times that I don't feel bad about that later are when I was correcting obvious and egregious doctrinal errors from a proclaiming Christian. That caveat scenario doesn't happen too often.
So, why is that temptation always there? I know better. I just don't know better in the moment.
* I'll always be an idiot shouting an opinion here.
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1 comment:
ha! Apparently you do know better -- enough to stop yourself. I am amazed at some of the public debates and things people put out there. I heard someone say if you wouldn't say it over a megaphone in a crowded place then you shouldn't put it on there.
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