With Facebook making yet another comeback, there are some things to consider. It is a great platform to freely express your mind with virtually unlimited characters (I haven’t tested this fact). You can share that article about your favorite presidential candidate or show your support for transgender bathrooms. You can also update your family on college life or post pictures of that last reunion you went to. While it is all great, do not forget that it is all public.
When I mean that it is all public, I mean that “sharing” something is just like talking about it in public or wearing a t-shirt of it. You have stated your opinion and you have done so proudly. One example for the comparison I’m trying to make is by using is my boyfriend. He loves a soccer team called Manchester United more than anything. His Facebook picture has their logo and on game days he walks around with his team jersey on. While this is all good, he came up to visit my school one time and a coach came up to him and said “I really hate your jersey.” My boyfriend just laughed it off and members of this coach’s team actually started cheering him on. The reason I’m writing about this is to prove my point; When you love and are proud of an opinion of yours, you’d be a fool to think that everyone agrees with you. That will never happen.
That’s one thing I love about this world, none of our opinions are identical and because of that we can learn from each other. People need to stop taking things personally just because an opinion differs. I am very open with my opinions so I don’t feel a need to share them now, but I have had people comment back on things I’ve shared with opinions differing than mine. I love it, because of that person sharing their opinion, if someone comes to that post and has an undifferentiated affiliation with said topic, they can see my side and whoever commented. It’s almost an easier way to find things out instead of googling things. I also enjoy commenting on other people’s posts and having a constructive discussion. But, for some reason, people see this as others trying to belittle them. I’ve had people become angry with me or delete my comments on their posts all because I didn’t agree with what they see. They see it as me making an attack at them just because our opinions differ. From this, decide to attack back all because of a simple variation of an opinion. I have seen people call others idiots for their opinions and so on, it is insane. It seems to be the people that delete comments and are unable to see any view but their own are the ones that don’t have constructive discussions about these topics in person. Yet, they deem it okay to go on a Facebook posting spree about it. Hiding behind the internet or a phone has never been a tolerable way to communicate. Have some face to face discussions and I promise you that you'll learn something useful, or at least start to understand another’s viewpoint.
While these things seem to all be opinion-based, I’m not saying them because people need to be more kind. I’m saying these things because people need to be more logical. People need to realize that they are not the only thing in Earth's orbit and just because others don’t agree with them doesn’t mean that the opposer is wrong. It means that you should learn the reason behind the opposer's opinion, expand your realm of thinking, even if you don't agree. It will give you more to talk about.
