The beast of social media has reared its head and bitten off a piece of civilization. Everywhere I go, I see people surfing through Facebook or Instagram, looking and judging whether the post is fit to Like for their great standards. People would rather look at their phone screens than have a face-to-face conversation these days. Don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to social media. I am the administrator of two Facebook pages, so I know how powerful it can be regarding advertising, collaboration, communication, and learning. In fact, learning is vital for me since I get most of my news and current events knowledge via Facebook. However, people have a habit of taking things too far. When a distraction changes into something ugly, something that inspires conflict, then some type of silver lining must be used to remedy this.

In my Writing for the Professions class, we read an article about how colleges view the social media pages of its applicants and it could be a deciding factor in their decision. One of the applicants actually wrote extremely disparaging comments on her Twitter about other students, which would have gotten her rejected if she had not already been rejected because of her academic performance. It is outrageous what people will post on the most public forums. Did you know that there is a whole Tumblr page about people taking selfies at a funeral (http://selfiesatfunerals.tumblr.com/)? Also, in the wake of the Paris terrorist attack, I have seen some disturbing responses on Facebook, including a video about how a man screams “Every Muslim is a terrorist” at a community meeting where a Muslim man is presenting plans for a new mosque. (http://www.mediaite.com/tv/virginia-mosque-meeting-gets-ugly-every-one-of-you-are-terrorists/) I have seen several egregiously racist comments and memes by people who are my Facebook friends (not to be mistaken with my real friends), people I know from my primary and secondary schools.

However, there is a silver lining here. Anyone and everyone will get an opportunity to speak their minds; social media has encompassed the very American idea of freedom of speech and has allowed people from any part of the world to practice this independence. These outlets have torn open wormholes in the very fiber of our society, giving us a peek of the thoughts, visions, and memories of people halfway across the world. Social media has spread democracy to the entire globe.

It even promotes the idea of argumentation and sparks debates, something Americans love to do. For instance, the other day I was reading a lengthy Facebook thread about the recent decision to make Stony Brook University tobacco-free in 2016. One of my friends was very cogently stating the positive nature of this program, arguing that it was okay for people to poison their own bodies but don’t endanger the lives of others via secondhand smoke. After I saw this, I went to the CDC Fact Sheet and found out that 2.5 million people have died from secondhand smoke effects since 1964! Looking back at the thread, I read through the dissonance that my friend’s sound argument created. People who never cared about history suddenly were talking about constitutional rights and writing long diatribes about how the university could not take away their legal right to smoke. They were bringing in data from various studies and doing the research to protect what was important to them. If only they spent this amount of time and effort on their studies! (Just kidding, for all I know they could be spectacular students.)

The point is that this digital communication medium has allowed for an equality that is undervalued, a level playing field for people of all backgrounds and idiosyncrasies to express themselves. I am astonished and sometimes reviled by the things people post, but at least if it is reaching me, I know I will have an opportunity to change their mind.