Another Social Media Friendship Termination

Social media is the bane of society.  Why everybody feels the need to broadcast their personal and political beliefs is beyond me.  "A social media post totally changed my perspective on a hot button issue," said nobody - ever.

As I'm typing this another long-term friendship is totally destroyed because of social media.  The sad thing is that both of these women are good friends of mine and I love them both dearly.  Granted, they are on opposite sides politically, but I thought true friendship could endure political differences and debates.

Silly, naive me. 

My mind goes back to not-so-long ago when we all would be at each others' homes having a BBQ in the back yard on a beautiful Saturday night.  Laughter was abundant.  Wine was flowing.  We all shared parts of our lives that even the biggest social media whore would never disclose as we all sat in a circle around the fire pit as night fell.  ahhhhhhhhhh friendship.....how wonderful it is. 

.....and then social media came along......

What social media started out as "look at me, aren't you jealous" evolved into a poison political forum where truths are fabricated and vice versa.  Now, another friendship is destroyed because both women thought their positions on abortion were correct.  This is (or should I state was) a friendship that is 40 years old and goes back to childhood.  Arguing about the unborn is as fruitless as arguing about which came first - the chicken or the egg (no pun intended).

I'm genuinely sad about the nastiness both of my friends displayed at each other.  In my heart I truly believe that it would not have sunk to the level it did if they had their conversation face-to-face.  It's so easy to hurl insults and opinions from behind a screen.  I'm guilty of it myself and it's not a flattering trait.

Both friends are not budging in their positions.  That is their right, I suppose.  I'm caught in the middle.  I think both are wanting me to weigh in with my opinion.  Truth is, I don't know what the truth is.  I have held beliefs that I would have sworn to God to be truths shattered in an instant.  I have had others' opinions that I initially blown off to be bogus turn out to be (what I believe) to be truths. 

As the song Knights in White Satin indicates, "Just what the truth is, I can't say anymore......"

Another song lyric comes to mind from the late George Harrison, "The more I learn the less I know."
 
I challenge everybody to spend time wrestling viewpoints from the opposite spectrum.  There is a grain of truth in all of it.  Maybe it is just a grain, but it's there.  Don't limit yourself by surrounding yourself with people and media that only reinforces your own prejudiced viewpoint.  In my lifetime I've observed that whatever you're vehemently against has a way of showing up in your life to deal with.  For example, (dramatic license invoked) I know of a woman who is against abortion and thinks that women who have them should be stoned to death.....until.....she discovers her own daughter had one.