People post with a purpose. You have intentions for all and every action, but most seem to fail in responding when it comes to actually receiving a reaction.

I can’t help but notice that since the political race of 2016, I am seeing more of my online “friends” rising from the wood-works in order to post their opinions and thoughts regarding politics, and anything and everything that matters to them or who they think should care. What I’ve noticed the most is that this type of sharing has become a bit too much. As more people become comfortable expressing their true feelings behind a keyboard and computer screen, the more people get riled up and want to react at the person who is making the posted opinion that they don’t agree with.

As I’ve seen most with the recent presidential election, there seems to be more racist comments and material posted over and over again throughout my timeline. From this I am spending more time cleaning out my friends list than I do trying to clean my actual room. This idea of “my profile, my opinion” is the thing that people are getting so worked up over. People are sharing things that they think are funny/true/real, but then it turns out to be insensitive to a whole lot of other people, yet the person who shared just doesn’t care. Or, vice versa, the people who is trying to share their opinion with facts, evidence, even screen shots, are being claimed as illegitimate, wrong or too politically correct, and people will not open their eyes to see that there are other people with different opinions.

What I am trying to say is that posting online is like walking through quicksand. People want to post something and then retract it, only not realizing that once something is posted online, it’s there forever. We see this when officials in different cities make racist posts, then the people who follow them are contacting their place of work asking for them to be fired because of the post that they shared.

The internet, the comment section, anywhere online is open season for anyone to post anything. What you have to realize once you take this platform, is that you need to stand by what you’re about to post or be ready for some major damage control for what you’ve said. I’ve seen friends post things about the election and when people try to comment and discuss they reply, “Not here for an argument,” or “Just want to show the other side/opinion." This response comes from a side who wants to see people react, yet don’t want to try to support or back their claims. If we aren’t here to have an open conversation, then why does making the claim “my opinion” even matter? If you won’t discuss your opinion or why you believe in something to the other person because they are willing to look onto your side, then what is the point of the post at all?