Column: Something About Nothing, by Julie Seedorf

Social media is a good way to get the news out and about. I too follow Facebook and Twitter. Younger people follow other social media too.

On Facebook I keep in touch with old friends and new friends. My sprinkled notes Facebook page where I post my columns and other information about my writings keeps me in touch with those who are interested in what I write and inspirational quotes. Social media is good if used for the right reasons.

Of course it is important to keep checking your privacy settings so not everyone can see what you post but I also think it is important to remember to not post anything that you might not want strangers to see. I am always amazed at what I sometimes read from people that I don’t know that do not have their settings limited.

Groups and organizations now have Facebook pages to keep us up to date on what is happening. Elected officials have Facebook pages.

Social media has been used in bad ways. Teenagers have been in the news for launching attacks on people on Facebook and other social media. Maybe that is to be expected because they have not matured into good decision making adults yet.

However, I was shocked one day to read a Facebook post by an elected official that posted a message they had received. I assume it was a private message or email that this elected official shared with everyone on their Facebook page that also showed up on others’ Facebook pages, including mine because I am a friend of a friend. The message this elected official received was from a person expressing their disbelief and disappointment about a recent decision that lawmakers made. This elected official posted the message and the person’s name so that it could be shared and commented on in the wide world of social media. I wonder if when this person sent this message to this lawmaker they knew their name and their message would be put out there for everyone to see. I wonder if they were prepared to be ridiculed and assaulted by words. This official also commented on this post and it had a less than a respectful tone.

Whether or not I share the opinions of the people who are elected into office I would hope when I would write them a letter or send them a message expressing my opinion that it would not be put out there for all to see. Isn’t that in itself a form of bullying? Will things like that stop people from contacting their lawmakers in private to express their opinion?

When you are someone in the public sector, especially an elected public official you have to expect that there will be people who will disagree with you and tell you they disagree with you. In this case the outcome of the disagreement was won on the side of the person that publicly represents us. The comments they made when they shared the message were on the mocking side, at least that is how I took them.

I have nothing against this person who represents us. I agree with some of what they do and some of what they don’t. I don’t agree with the handling of this message. By posting that message it puts that person’s name out there to be fair game for everyone to harass that person. This person at least had the courage to sign their message.

In a world where our kids are dying because of being bullied it is up to us as adults to be the leaders, to stop the behavior that leads to bullying. It does start at the top with the people in congress, our legislature and us as parents and grandparents. It goes back to the poem “Children Learn What They Live” by Dorothy Law Nolte that I mentioned in my past column.

Are we teaching our children the bullying behavior? Is it our bad behavior that is fueling their bad behavior? It has to stop. Maybe it starts and stops with us.

 

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net.