The Social Media Purge

Everyone has undoubtedly heard of the movie The Purge. Just in case you haven't let me summarize it for you. One it's not worth your time but it has an interesting concept. The concept is what if you could had one day per year to vanquish people from your life. Yes, legalize murder for one day. If you could you surely would go after people that were really just scum bags. People that you probably wouldn't urinate on if they were on fire. Okay maybe I'm going to far but you get the point. You have this power on your social media feed every single day.

As a person that sits around just trying to figure shit out, I began to try and figure out why kids today appear less equipped to deal with everyday issues. I tried to figure why depression and mental illness seems a lot more prevalent then it was when I was a kid. While the answer is probably better screening. It just seemed like to me it had to be something more. Kids and young adults just don't seem as happy as they once was. So as I often do to solve issues, I began to look within for answers. I asked myself what issues was I struggling with that I wasn't twenty or thirty years ago. Like a bolt of lightning striking a lone tree in an open field, it just hit me. Social media! The devil itself. Social Media.

When I was a kid growing up, people that were in my social groups were people I actually knew and wanted to spend time with. Now twenty or thirty years later my circle has been expanded to people that I wouldn't know if I passed them on the street. What this has done is opened me up to scumbags that if there was a purge day, they would surely considerations as prime candidates to be purged. As humans we are not naturally equipped to deal with people with a value and morality swing of more then 2 to 3 points either way. If you really think about it your actual circle are people with a 2 to three point value and moral swing from yourself. I mean socially woke people in life have very little to do with bigots. That's just to far of a swing for them. Feminist don't have in their real circles chauvinistic individuals. It would just make life too excruciating to bother with. People with this much of a difference in opinions, morality and values were just not intended to interact on a regular basis. This brought me to the conclusion that kids today were not less equipped to deal with the crap we all dealt with in the past. They were simply dealing with shit that none of us should be dealing with.

To make things still worse. Social media provides people cover to do things that they would never do face to face. It's very easy to say the vile and disrespectful stuff I see people say while your sitting in your living-room 30 miles away from the person your disrespecting. So not only are you interacting with people with more than a comfortable moral and value range from your own system, they are also amped up on steroids because they don't have to worry about a face to face confrontation. This is a recipe for social disaster. I saw what was happening to me and I decided to take back my mind from the dirty alley of social media.

Purge, Purge, Purge! About three months ago I began my social media purge. I began eliminating bigots, scumbags, idiots, and more importantly keyboard thugs. If your social media presence represents more then a three point swing from mine you were blocked. Not unfollowed not unfriended but blocked. I've decided that if your moral compass is so far off that I find you offensive then I don't want to even hear from you on someone else's feed. Basically your views and opinions are irrelevant. Can I tell you how much more pleasant my news feed is, how different the world has become and ultimately how much better I feel not dealing with scum. Yes I admit, my block list is long as a drive down I-95 south but my outlook has changed. I can't tell you how much I enjoy reading my news feed now. I really love reading from people with my concerns and my morals and values. I love that their voice is no longer getting lost in the provocative posts from bigots and fascists looking to inflame. I have a slogan for this. Improving Life: One Block At A Time.

Stop engaging these people and simply block them. Classmates, co-workers, family, and strangers be advised a block doesn't mean I don't like you, It simply means I don't want to hear from you.