Reading is Truly Fundamental
The book of faces does not disappoint - sometimes. If you have (like I have) ever written a comment on a post, then you know two things: someone will either leave an emoji of some sort or leave an actual comment on what you have stated. Some comments may be in agreement or disagreement with what you said. Nothing is wrong with that really; social media is for social activity. But have you noticed that there has been an abundance of not so friendly responses to your comments and the feedback has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ARTICLE?
Sorry for the caps, but this is something I have noticed recently, and it makes me sad. I respect everyone’s opinion. We are all entitled to our point of view, but what happened to the step of reading the post or article BEFORE trolling someone’s comment? This type of feedback has caused me to stay away from social media on a personal level. Just an example: a national news outlet posted an article to their site. The report was speaking about the (at that time) potential Democratic nominee and who he should consider as his choice for vice president. Well, it was an opinion piece about what a representative stated Biden’s VP pick should be. So I took the time to read the article, formulated my opinion, and made the drastic mistake of posting it. Now, in the beginning, there was nothing wrong with what I posted (in my opinion).
Five minutes later, my phone started binging and dinging from notifications. One was from the book. Cool, I thought. When I opened the app, it was a notification that someone responded to my comment. Once I read the response, I was confused. The best way I can explain what confused me is by doing an illustration of what happened. Ready?
Me, commenting to article I read: I understand why she made the statement she made, but at this time, the focus should be on picking someone who has the qualifications to be president in the event something happens. He can choose any woman he wants, as long as she has what it takes.
Grumpy Ol’ Trollster 1: GLAD YOU’RE NOT RACIST, BUT I SEE YOU A SEXIST.
Me: Umm, thanks, but I’m not a sexist. The candidate wants his choice to be female, not me. You may want to contact him about that.
Grumpy Ol’ Trollster no longer exists because troll removed message *sigh*
New Notification:
Grumpy Ol’ Trollster 2: (insert my FB username here), Obama set loose this virus on us, and now you want to have a woman come in and ruin what our all mighty and powerful president has done. He has fixed our housing issues, no more poverty, no more food shortages, and you want the police defunded and low-income people to live in luxury homes to bring down our home values. Shame on you, ma’am!
Me: I am so confused about where in the article it mentions ANYTHING you have stated. I am commenting on what I read. Maybe I overlooked that part. Can you show me where it is located?
Grumpy Ol’ Trollster 2: Well, didn’t you say something about a woman? I am only talking about what you are talking about.
Me: Still confused and wish you can help me find what you are stating in this article.
Grumpy Ol’ Trollster: Well, isn’t Obama in the article? That’s what you are talking about, right?
Me: 🤔 I see what’s happening here. You haven’t read the article, and you are trying to get me to argue with you about what you stated. Got it. Have fun arguing with yourself. 👌🏾 ✌🏾
Quite honestly, I have tried not to become distracted by these 2020 trolls. Or maybe trolls have always been that way. I don’t know, but if you have gone through something similar to what I demonstrated above, I pray that it hasn’t gone any further that the nonsense I displayed. I may want others to see my point of view, but I don’t have the skin nor patience for people who I can tell just want to argue. My advice: allow the grumpy ol’ trollster of the internet to have a say. Even though you may be talking about a chicken noodle soup recipe you discovered, if the troll wants to argue how Obama turned chickens into ducks, just click the “care” emoji for their comment and keep talking about how yummy your soup was. This crazy will be over soon, right?!?
