Un-follow

Strange thing happened while I was watching the World Serious. As usual, multi-tasking because I can’t stay focused when I click on a Facebook page. I only follow a few counter-culture pages and this page that was suppose to connect people from my burg. I don’t spend much time on them but when there are several posts, I click over to check who commented. Tonight was something different.

Instead of the usual picture of some old people or babies or puppies or some restaurant that has been out of business for years, someone posted a picture of a yard with a sign saying something about saving the monuments with a picture of the Robert E. Lee statue on the Monument Avenue in the Capitol of the Confederacy. I didn’t recognize the name of the person who started the thread, but it seemed to hit a nerve.

The comments were showing up faster than I could read them. Before I could scroll back up to double check the original message I was overwhelmed with the degrading attitude displayed in the potty mouth culture that jump aboard. Without regard or even factual or logical response, the hatred flowed back and forth.

I un-clicked the page and moved back to puppies and grandmothers and flowers and babies. I was confused because the page had presented some interesting historical facts about this river city so this was unusual.

After awhile I went back to the page and the fires were still burning. A few messages were asking for help from the administrator but the rage didn’t stop.

So I stopped it. I clicked on Un-follow the page. The name went off my shortcut list and that was that.

The next day I tried to go back and find the page to see if it was still going on but couldn’t remember what the name was. It was just a page full of strangers who live or had lived in this town I call home but it somehow got out of hand with one sentence.

At the beginning of the year, after a testy political campaign, I cleaned out my Rolodex. I went through people, who for long periods of time or somehow connected by school or work or some other shared experience, and reviewed my relationship with them. Many were like cousins who you had not seen in decades but still sent Christmas cards.

Un-friend is a click of a mouse. I was also un-friended by some and perhaps deserved more. It is a good way to declutter the emotional closet.