I assume this happens everywhere, but there's a Facebook group called "The Talk of Genoa," which is the nearest "small town" in the area. This is the Genoa school district, so that sort of makes Genoa the unofficial center of the local community. I live about 7 miles out of town, for reference, but I joined the group out of curiosity.
You know how most people get by because they don't know what their neighbors are like, in the privacy of their own homes? How you get along with a neighbor, passing a pleasantry in the summer months when you're both in the back yard, because you don't know what kind of porn each of you get off to?
"The Talk of Genoa" group removes all that mystery (so to speak). There isn't any talk of porn, but you find out the sweet old lady next door laughs at the people she inconveniences on the main road into the city. You find out she purposely drives during rush hour 15 under the speed limit, knowing no one can pass on that busy road, and when she states this in the group she puts the laughing emoji on there and says, "Ha, I guess I have to go 5 slower tomorrow and watch them pile up! People should just leave home earlier!"
Someone found out the local bowling alley had an employee that was arrested 20 years ago, at 19, because of his 17 year old girlfriend. The local school sends their grade school kids there for after school bowling, several days a week. My kid loved that program, when he went for years. The school was contacted about an undocumented sex predator, the school cancelled their contract with the bowling alley because of the sex offender, and now the bowling alley is probably shutting down.
Nothing is off limits. People sit in their dark living rooms with the shades pulled, feel privacy and safety, and turn off their filters. It sort of makes me nauseous, watching people be happily, gleefully ugly in the guise of "Being a good person." Others, leaning the same way but would have otherwise kept their thoughts to themselves, see a kindred spirit and jump on the train.
"That guy with the semi truck on his own property shouldn't be allowed to keep it there because I can see it from my window."
"Those kids at Taco Bell are having sex in the store."
"This local restaurant gave me bad service so they are monsters and no one should eat there."
Every post has people piling on. People who would never say these things at a town hall meeting, under the actual gaze of their neighbors. The mob has a voice, and unsurprisingly, it's ugly.
Social media is going to be the end of this society.
Speaking of social media....
Speaking of social media....
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Speaking of social media....
You're not wrong.
Possibly, but I'm doubtful.
I don't join the mob (mostly), but I do tweet directly to companies when they make me mad. But, no one follows me on twitter, so it's really just me shouting at them.
It's not me, it's someone else.
Speaking of social media....
This was normal for a small town before social media. I had a teacher (coach) that talked about he and an old classmate talking outside downtown and they saw another female classmate walk by and the said hello and she continued on. As soon as she got out of earshot, he told the coach, "she had to get married in high school because she was pregnant". He thought, how bad is your life that you have to be worrying about someone getting pregnant in high school 35 years later?
"... and then I was forced to walk the Trail of Tears." - Elizabeth Warren
Speaking of social media....
... one person said to another. Facebook is one person, absent consequence, telling everyone. Then 5 prudish women on the feed, seeing an opportunity, start calling the 50 year old woman "slut" behind her back, and begin badmouthing her to all who will listen. The world gets a little shittier.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Speaking of social media....
Yeah, well, just tell them slut-shaming is bad, and they're just jealous they're not getting laid.GORDON wrote: ... one person said to another. Facebook is one person, absent consequence, telling everyone. Then 5 prudish women on the feed, seeing an opportunity, start calling the 50 year old woman "slut" behind her back, and begin badmouthing her to all who will listen. The world gets a little shittier.
It's not me, it's someone else.
Speaking of social media....
And the world gets a little shittier.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Speaking of social media....
Our small town has the same type of FB page.
Just a place where morons can show off their ignorance publicly.
Just a place where morons can show off their ignorance publicly.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
Speaking of social media....
TrueGORDON wrote: ... one person said to another. Facebook is one person, absent consequence, telling everyone. Then 5 prudish women on the feed, seeing an opportunity, start calling the 50 year old woman "slut" behind her back, and begin badmouthing her to all who will listen. The world gets a little shittier.
"... and then I was forced to walk the Trail of Tears." - Elizabeth Warren