How Facebook and Twitter Killed My Love For People - My Thoughts You Didn't Really Want To Know

Excuse me while I rant for a short bit here. After all, it is my blog. But, in all seriousness, I recently researched information about asthma and learned that those who jot down their strong emotional feelings tend to find relieve from their asthma symptoms. So, whether or not that is true, it's time I just get writing.

First on my mind is people. I really struggle with the passage in the Bible that talks about, "How can you say you love God whom you have not seen if you hate your brother whom you have seen?"

This scripture messes with me. See - I just really don't care for people. Oh, I've tried to love them. At one point in my teen/early 20-year-old me, I even thought I loved people so much that I made it my college degree - Human Services Associates Degree followed by a Human Resource Management Bachelors Degree, and 100s of hours in training for the suicide hotline, Life Crisis along with 60 intern hours at Probation and Parole office working with sex offenders and aggressive offenders and the like. I even went into a prison with doors shut behind me to interview one of the inmates. I remember hours of heart-felt arguments with my mom about social work and welfare, standing up for those who live by it.

So, with that passionate love-for-people history, one day, my daughter asked me:

"What happened?"

My answer is honestly that I'm not sure what happened to make my love for mankind switch to really want to vomit and spew out hateful anger at everyone who acts ugly.

When social media began, I was basically forced to become a part of it because of my online writing that needed clicks in order to receive pay. I went on wide-eyed and hopeful only to discover that even  family members and friends I thought were really close have opinions that I really did not need to know.

Facebook during an election year was more than I could handle. Oh, and I am not even referring to the presidential election. It happened with a candidate I personally knew and loved as a person long before that. But, it opened my eyes to how cut-throat angry even those I thought I loved react.

It's not that I can't take someone disagreeing with me so much as it hurts that the disagreement always turns to personal attack. This I don't understand!

Why is someone suddenly a moron simply because they say the don't vaccinate their children?
Why is someone de-friended because they liked a picture of a water birth?
Why is someone told to go spend a night in the freezing snow in their car simply because they asked a question about those stranded in a blizzard that set someone off?
Why is someone demeaned and told that they are hateful and judgemental, when the comment they posted did not have the resulted intent.
Why are the people who are the meanest the ones who are screaming the loudest about love?

These are just the tip of the iceberg to my feelings on the matter. But, the more I see Twitter and Facebook, and headlines of the day, the more I feel isolated as if my feelings and what is important to me is not valued.

I will stand by Thumper's comments in Bambi:

"If you don't got nuthin' nice to say, don't say nuthin' at all!"

Meanwhile, I am left to feel demeaned and devalued and even hated because I believe in family values. I believe in Christian values. I belive in traditional marriage. I believe that a woman can find utter and complete happy fulfillment through being a wife and mother. I felt empowered when I had my babies without medication, one of them even at home. I believe in natural eating and living. I don't automaticallly trust a doctor or dentist or orthodontist simply because he or she has a degree behind their name. I don't trust Science before I trust Faith. I believe in home education. And, there are probably a million other things about me that will tick you off, for some reason think I am judging you because I choose to live these ways, and make you experience a knee-jerk reaction need to spew out all sorts of mean comments you will justify in the name of education, science, or love.

OK, for now I will stop. Don't know if it improved my asthma symptoms, but thanks for listening.