Social Media and the end of discourse....

I just turned 80 and have a few things to say.
Facebook was a great idea. Generally the idea was to keep.in touch with friends and acquaintances. Or those with common interests. Sorta answering the essential drop line on seeing someone for the first in a long time: "Howya doin'?".
Just in our own little corner of the world we've seen how that devolves. For FUSA folks on FB, it turned into self promotion..whether hawking podcasts or shirts.
Among the general FB populace, too often either soliciting sympathy for our own trials and tribulations, myriads of local events we're interested in... Or promoting our own views of the world.
Guilty of that, yer honor! ( yeah go figger)
Now compare that to the rowdy convos of former times, both here and before that, on FulhamFC boards.
What was it like there? You younguns ask... It was a free for all where insults flowed freely and no one took them as personal attacks. Even if they should have.
Sort of like a Happy Hour at your local. We even discussed Teams and players, occasionally but it was pretty entertaining for the most part.
Some of us could easily predict the outcome of FUSA/Facebook for different reasons. The shirt and podcast hawkers had to post constantly to keep their subjects in view, resulting in readers having to spend seconds scrolling thru to see if there was anything of interest amongst the noise.
Like it or not, that's the beginning of the end.
End of rant one.

 

I stopped using Facebook just over a year ago, and I don't regret it at all. It was for a number of reasons, partly because of Facebook doing just about anything for short-term monetization, but mostly it didn't put me in a good frame of mind. There were "friends" who were doing things I found really objectionable, but the most frequent negative was feeling envy because someone was always going to a nicer vacation spot, or buying a better car, or achieving something of note. I have no reason to feel envy, I've got it pretty good but Facebook fed into that. So I bailed and focused on connecting more with friends directly.

I wasn't around for the good ole' days of FUSA, but I do appreciate that the discussions here don't devolve into pissing matches (very often)!

 

I deleted all of my social media accounts sometime this past summer, except for LinkedIn. I got rid of it for good after some on again, off again back and forth.
But my incentives were far less noble than the end of discourse, civil or otherwise.
I did it to save my marriage.

 

Same here Mr. Hymel. Although I have no personal or professional endeavors, such as yours with Steve, begging the use of social media, I had also stayed in touch with fellow seasoned citizens using it, primarily Facebook. A goodly number of those were friends and acquaintances from the formative seasons of my life, the ones almost all of us, inevitably, lose touch with forever, pre-social media. A few were folks I'd known since first grade at Holy Name Elementary in Henderson, KY., one of whom I shared an identical educational journey through college. She and I graduated from Murray State University on May 12th, 1979. Both of us also ended up working in Louisville for a good chunk of years before she moved to Florida over a decade ago. Reconnecting with them and co-workers from the early years of my career, plus staying connected to all of them and the scores of others met through work since retirement, is what I miss most, primarily through Mr. Zuckerberg's invention. Not to mention the fact that many entities I'm quite fond of use Facebook as their company or organization website.
And, of course, you and all the other Fulhamericans, not to mention the fact that many entities I'm quite fond of use Facebook as their company or organization website.

 

It's amazing how platforms like Facebook bridge the gaps in our lives, reconnecting us with those special people from our past. Your journey from Holy Name Elementary to college graduation and beyond is truly a testament to the power of these digital connections.

And yes, the Fulhamerica community and the various entities using Facebook as their virtual hub add another layer of richness to the experience. By the way, have you ever explored enhancing your Instagram presence with strategies like Instagram likes for sale? It's an interesting avenue for boosting engagement!