A Message to New Adapters of Social Media: Facebook is a Great Forum for Showing Off, Bullying, or Intelligent Discourse

An old friend has been considering joining Facebook. My friend is politically active in the community and is a personal archive of the good, the bad, and the ugly found in that community. A person the community needs, although certainly a thorn in the foot of some agendas. Needed, however, because, in these days of questionable facts, it is more important than ever to examine facts. What are facts, what are opinions, and what are misdirects?

Educating someone on the style of communication that is required for the effective use of social media is not an easy task. The concept of organic conversation shared electronically has a very informal nature rather than a more formal style that we might be, either used to, or simply want. And postings need to be short and snappy, engineered communication rather than ramblings.

A number of years ago, I made an effort to teach social media communication to fellow oldsters at the College for Seniors here on the university campus. Facebook was still relatively new and the senior demographic had become the fastest growing segment of Facebook users. At the same time, their children and grandchildren were still relatively new to the medium as well. It seemed that it was an opportunity for the more experienced and sage members of society to participate in an exciting new social experiment. If we could sensitize ourselves to the style of communication that was attracting others to Facebook, we would have a chance at a leadership role that would allow us to share our wisdom in a manner that might actually be heard.

My experience was similar to running into a stone wall. Those who signed up for the course were only

interested in seeing the images that their children and grandchildren were posting. They were reticent to sharing their own thoughts and ideas.  They couldn’t be bothered to attempt understanding how they might communicate with others. I asked them why they felt that this approach would do anything constructive. Why waste their energy on simply passive participation? Would they still be interested when those cute pictures of children turned into pictures of new tattoos, wild parties, and outrageous images of their friends acting out? This is what young people do. A long time ago, many of us lived this life.

Taking an active role on Facebook is a challenge. It requires an awareness of how to effectively communicate. It requires a commitment to an ideal. It requires a willingness to adapt. It is not a great medium for the righteous. It is, however, a great place to expose ideas and convince. This will not be done with a lack of respect, or drawing lines in the sand. As stated above, Facebook is a medium for engineered communication. Facts can be presented, reiterated, and later used as the basis for points that we would like to make. They cannot be tossed in the face of those with different points of view. Those folks already have their “alternate” facts. They need to be subtly led to truth not hit in the head with it.

At least this is my humble opinion. Now, can I show you my new tattoo?