I’ll be the first one to admit that I’m addicted to social media, just like almost all millennials are. I spend way more time than I’d like to on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. But more and more I am finding that I simply dread going on Facebook. I still do it out of sheer force of habit, but I barely spend any time actually reading what people are posting. In my opinion Facebook has come way too political.

First, I would like to say that I’m not arguing that people should never post their political thoughts and views on Facebook, but I definitely think it should happen much less often than it does now. And if you really feel that strongly about sharing your political views on Facebook, that’s fine. But when you share them it would be nice if you weren’t sharing something that was horribly negative and hating on people who do not share the same opinion. It’s one thing to share a well-written article or post about your beliefs; it’s a whole different story when you’re sharing “Everyone who hates –insert candidate’s name here- is an idiot.” I guarantee you that there is someone your friend’s with on Facebook that would take great offense to that. We all have reasons for supporting the things that we do, but so does everyone. What makes your beliefs so special that you have the right to treat other people poorly?

I used to enjoy using Facebook. I loved scrolling through my news feed and seeing albums and albums of pictures from my friends’ adventures. I loved seeing them post updates about what was going on in their lives. I even like to see what kind of things they share (sometimes). But lately I go on Facebook and all I see is political posts. Again I say that it’s absolutely fine to post political things on Facebook, but why does that have to be the only thing (or the majority of things) that you post? I understand that social media is a platform to share your mind. Obviously I know that considering I write an article every week sharing my mind. But the difference is I don’t write some super politically charged, negative, biased article about my beliefs. I don’t believe in that, and I never will. I’m happy for people to post their opinions, as long as you can have a grown up conversation or you aren’t posting one-sided, subjective junk. It goes for both sides, and it always has.

With this year’s presidential election and all the craziness of the candidates, I’ve seen more than my fair share of hatred toward all of them on Facebook. Why is that okay? In a society where everyone wants to preach love and stop hatred, why is it okay to turn around and post something completely hateful and one-sided? It’s not, in my humble opinion. I see a lot of people posting a lot of rude things on Facebook then turn around and claim that we need to love each other. Well guess what, that love that you’re preaching should reach to everyone, including presidential candidates and politicians, even if you don’t agree with them.

That’s why I hate going on Facebook. In an ideal world, everyone would be able to have an adult argument about their political beliefs. But since that isn’t happening today, I guess now is a good time to wean my social media habit. I don’t want to end up with a negative outlook on humanity.