By Trent Rosser
Just a few more days, and the elections will be over with. I cannot express how much I am wanting it to be over with. I have followed the elections mainly through social media, and honestly, it is hard to see through all this mud. Facebook has been flooded with different pages all showing support for certain candidates. Unfortunately, some of them have used the pages to not inform voters of candidates platforms, but instead they are used to attack other candidates. Even though some pages have disappeared, there are many more that have taken their spots. I used to be like a lot of people and would watch funny things on social media. Things like cats and dogs playing, or small children getting into mischief. Even funny quotes and videos from friends. But now everything is looking very negative.
Social media is now what a lot of people use to get information. If you have a question about something or you need help with school work, you just go to the computer and look it up on Google or any other search engine. When I was growing up, if I needed help, I would have to go to the school library, find the encyclopedia and look it up. If we needed more information than what the encyclopedia could give, we would have to find the card catalog and try to find something that way. Believe me, it is a lot harder than it sounds. Now with the internet and social media, you can pull just about anything up with just a couple of clicks of a computer mouse. Technology has come a long way!
Unfortunately, with the social media, things have become clouded. You can never know what is true and what is a lie. It just takes a few strokes of a keyboard to print something on the internet for the world to see. Whether it be real or false. Also, it seems that we all want to take the word of someone than to rather do a little research and find out if something is true or not. Even with all the resources that we now have with the internet, most will not put in the extra work to verify something that is said or heard on social media. A good example is what happened many years ago to a public celebrity. Rumors were being spread like wildfire across the internet that this certain celebrity had passed away. This celebrity finally had to print a picture of himself with an edition of that day's newspaper just to show the date and that he was not dead. Many people also not only have become what they call keyboard warriors, but some are now an attorney as well as the judge, jury and executioner.
With this election the mudslinging among social media has been unreal. Even people that comment on some of these post have been attacked. If you do not agree to certain post and express yourself, you could have a past mugshot brought up and be ridiculed for stating your opinion. I myself have been attacked for asking a question. I have been attacked for being a part of the “Amarillo Pioneer”. People say that I am supporting and helping pay for a candidate. Let me be the first to put an end to this myth. I have not donated to any one’s campaign. I have voted, but have no contributed a single dime to anyone.
With that being said, I cannot wait for the elections to be over with. I want the good social media back. The one where we can share things in our lives and laugh at funny cats playing with dogs. The one where we, as Americans, can have a discussion and agree to disagree and still respect each other and their opinions. When we stop respecting people, the we stop respecting ourselves. Opinions vary as well as the people that have them, just because the opinion is not what you believe, it is what someone else believes. Just because you do not respect the opinion, doesn't mean that you cannot respect the person. Remember, do your own research, just because it is on the internet, doesn't mean that it is true. Now, just a few more days and I can hopefully watch funny videos again!
Rosser/Provided