"Come doused in mud, soaked in bleach..."

A Complexity of Social Media:
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I am deeply appreciative of these mechanisms for quite regularly reading the opinions and experiences of loved ones, accomplices, old buddies, friends of friends, and strangers. .Reading (and sometimes watching video about) their stories, experiences, and opinions shares with me some of who they are, informs my thinking, challenges me to learn and grow, gives me at least one great laugh a day (I'm looking at you, Stories And Videos About Dogs.), and, along with the rest of my daily interactions, highlights our interconnected humanity.
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Also, some of the seeming hallmarks of social media can leave me disheartened. While I dig brevity and wit, I am crushed a little each time these are used as tools to dismiss, belittle, or mock someone's experiences, opinions, body, life, self, etc. This means getting crushed a little bit repeatedly any day I am on social media. While I am energized and often pushed to greater depth of understanding by vigorous and engaging discussions among people with varied perspectives, these discussions don't often occur in my social media sphere. Often, discussions instead move quickly or slowly into tone policing, decontextualizing, preaching-to-the-choir, dismissal of both intent *and* impact, hardcore parsing of comments, and/or a number of other trends that manage to be simultaneously hurtful and incredibly boring.
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I start to wonder if it's a cruel joke. The mechanisms of social media both put us in closer proximity to riches of listening, watching, sharing, and changing and also smoothly support us in absolutely not investing in any of those.
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I mean, I have a hammer, right? Just turn me loose on all the screws.
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Love you all. Mean it.
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