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Sharing Content on Social Media Does Not (Necessarily) Equal Endorsement
And just because I share a quote doesn’t mean I like everything about the person behind the quote
A few months ago, I shared on Facebook a quote about anger. This drew a reprimand from a Facebook friend for my (in his mind) endorsing the philosopher behind the quote.
I was frankly dumbfounded.
My attempt to understand his objection drew bizarre and illogical objections that left me even more bewildered. I tried to take our disagreement private so that any misunderstandings could be cordially resolved.
He did not accept my efforts.
The experience made me more aware of an ongoing (and unfortunate) aspect of social media, and that is the proclivity for misunderstanding and frankly believing the worst about other people’s intentions.
Social media has become an integral part of everyday life, with platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube allowing people to connect and share content with ease. And many people use these platforms to express their opinions.
And as social media has become more popular and ubiquitous, we’ve become less skilled at handling differences of opinions.
