CONFESSIONS OF A MOM

I have a confession to make. Over the past little while, I have been spending more and more time on Facebook and iPad games. Any bit of down time I had (i.e. waiting for the computer to turn on, watching a show with Tigger, etc), I would hop on and see what was happening. In a way it was relaxing and it was fun to see what others were up to.

I began reading articles for various sources that other people shared and found myself getting more and more horrified at what people thought was appropriate to share. Some of their comments were simple things like, “Interesting,” or “Gross,” or other words to describe their feelings on that particular article.

It’s gotten me thinking and over the past week I’ve adjusted my time and have not been on Facebook as much this week. And it’s because of some of the things I read. That’s what has prompted this post. I really think people don’t understand what sharing an article does or at least they don’t think about it.

This is just a caution is all. I would think twice about sharing an article on social media. Is it something you truly feel needs to be spread around? Is it an uplifting message? Because believe it or not, whenever an article is shared, it is encouraging and showing support for whatever content is in the article and whomever wrote it.

Don’t take this the wrong way. I believe there are good things to share and should be shared, but do I/you really want to be spreading things about child abuse or celebrity indiscretions or other things along those lines. Some of the articles I skimmed (most of which I didn’t complete) left me very disturbed, even the ones that appeared to be “innocent.” Some of the teaser captions underneath the pictures associated with the articles left me squirming. Is that the kind of message we want to portray?

All I’m saying is that if you want to share an article to at least take the time think it all the way through. Do I/you want that particular subject/article linked to your name? Because it is linked through the fact that you’re sharing it. Do I/you want to be showing your support of that particular article? Because even if you don’t agree with it, the fact that you are sharing it is perpetuating the subject, drawing attention to it. Do I/you think that it is something that will benefit others from reading it?

Now I know that it was my choice to read those articles, but some of them I didn’t click on. Like I said, the teaser captions left me extremely disturbed. I’ve now chosen to not spend as much time on Facebook because of how uncomfortable I became with the bombardment of so many articles I really had no interest in. Hopefully, this hasn’t happened to you. Hopefully, it never will, but if you are one that likes to share articles, please take the time to think it through because it’s not only you that is effected by it.