July 19--It's already July 19?

[zyzyly]

Time goes by. It has been 2 months since my teaching semester ended, and one month until I start up again. I have a month to savor the rest of the summer. I better make good use of it.

I went early for some blood work in anticipation of my 6 month doctor visit. The phlebotomist had a good touch. I used to be phlebotomist. It's how I put myself through nursing school. I was good at it, thought largely self-taught. I bluffed my way into the job and figured it out pretty quickly. I needed a job.

I went out to walk after the blood draw, then got a cup of coffee and sat in the park for a while. It was a lovely morning. I thought about how negative and divisive social media has become. I think I prefer face to face conversations.

It's interesting. My friend who lives across the street from me is pretty much politically opposite of how I am, and yet we talk regularly, and that stuff rarely comes up. We tend to talk about the things we have in common, and the little things in our lives. He was kind of upset this week, and some of the political stuff spilled over into our conversation. He is a law enforcement officer, and it has been stressful lately. But, you know, I didn't need to argue with him or tell him he was crazy or anything. I just listened. I don't need to agree with him, or disagree with him. I can tell him how I see things, although this wasn't the time to do that. I trust my friendship with him more than anything I see on social media.

We need more face to face and less screen time. That's my social media opinion, lol.



A random 29 on the streets.

Comments

[howeird]

"We need more face to face and less screen time."
Luddite. ;-)
But seriously, I truly believe the reason me and my sisters still have a very close relationship is because we have social media. I'm in CA, baby sister is in WA, middle sister is in MD and ancient sister is in Israel. LJ used to keep me connected to a lot of people in the science fiction community, but almost all of them have ditched it for FB. I would never follow up on birthdays & anniversaries, & shows my friends are in if it wasn't for social media. Online, I can simply stop replying to someone with whom I disagree. In person I tend to get much more emotionally invested. YMMV. :-)

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Yeah I agree that it has its good points. I just don't think it is a good forum for debating opinions.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I remember a gathering of folks who used to work with my wife at a magazine. One couple of co-workers could not have been different--the liberal one who got married in a pagan ceremony in Ireland featuring a pig and the conservative one ensuring her children had a scripture-based home experience. But they talked of how to find good childcare because babysitters and daycares have no divisive ideology.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

As I read this, I wondered if the pig was a part of the ceremony, or part of the meal that followed. And reminded that at my first wedding, we had two roast pigs.

[neptunia67.livejournal.com]

I couldn't agree more. Social media is destructive.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

It has destructive elements, for sure, but there are also places like this. :)

[neptunia67.livejournal.com]

Yes for sure! I was thinking "Facebook" but my fingers typed "social media" 😊

[thoughtsbykat.livejournal.com]

I do keep in touch with friends and family via social media. Distances are a problem for face to face time. There are some people that I don't agree with but I have always left politics and religion out of discussions.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

You are wise.

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

I lived in Davis for the larger portion of my adult life, and other less but still relatively liberal areas for the rest of it. In many ways, it was an echo chamber similar to Facebook - not hard at all to surround myself with people who shared the same political views.

Moving here, I found that I get along just fine with people who have different beliefs, just as long as we avoid controversial subjects. My best friend is not on the same end of the political or religious spectrum, but we're more the same than different.

Which isn't to say it's always easy. Superficial relationships are easy, but since some of the controversial issues are fairly core to my identity, it can be hard to know who I can really trust beyond that.

It's an experience. I miss Davis and probably always will. But I think I'm better for it.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

The thing about my friend and I, is that if I decided one day to sit down with him and ask why he hated Obama, we could probably have a conversation where we might (probably most certainly) disagree, but I am sure we would remain civil. I don't think that happens much on Facebook