Please see Facebook page

I joined the Facebook craze way back in 2008 as a way to stay connected with family members, friends and other writers. I used it to look at photos of vacations; learn about births, illnesses and deaths in our large family; and find sources for the stories I was working on (Hey, I’m writing a story about Bigfoot and am looking for a source who thinks he or she may have seen one…).

I was pretty content the first few months that I was on the social me-

By Amber Nagle continued from page

dia platform, but I’ve been disenchanted with it ever since. I have noticed that people who are polite and compassionate in person become monsters spewing hate and divisive, abusive commentary online. Others I once thought were level headed have posted stupid things and reshared glaringly obvious misinformation and conspiracy theories.

I almost never engage with them. Instead, I find myself walking around in shock, asking myself, “Do I really want to be connected with that fool?”

Platforms like Facebook use algorithms to serve up specific content to its users — content that keeps them glued to their screens. For example, if its computer systems sense that you are very conservative, it will begin serving you only content that appeals to conservatives. If you are liberal, it will make sure you see more posts geared to people who have liberal tendencies. It’s like watching one television network — one that most aligns to what you want to hear, but may not allow you to expand your mind and understand why others have different opinions. This is a dangerous rabbit hole to go down and not representative of the world we live in, where we have friends, neighbors and loved ones with differing views of the world, and we all live together, work toward common goals and the pursuit of happiness and want the best for our families and our country.

Moreover, Facebook prioritizes sensational and highly engaging content, and perhaps “inadvertently,” allows false narratives to spread more quickly than a California wildfire.

Americans once valued truth. Now they click their share button faster than you can say Jack Robinson. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, or if it propagates harmful stereotypes, as long as it supports their set of beliefs and feelings.

And that single click has a ripple effect, and in a matter of minutes, friends of friends of friends are seeing the misleading post and getting angrier, or sadder, or more hopeless, or more frightened.

Facebook and other social media platforms have become where the fine art of discourse has devolved into a lunchroom food fight, but without the food. Gone are the days of calmly exchanging ideas over a cup of coffee or a beer; we now communicate in CAPITAL letters and punctuate with exclamation marks because we're SO. VERY. ANGRY.

After a while, everyone on Facebook finds themselves in a virtual mob of anger and/or fear, where rants are rewarded by friends “liking” posts.

And that, my friends, is how an already polarized nation continues to face a future of “it’s us against them.”

Let’s be honest here: Changing someone’s mind on Facebook (or elsewhere) is about as likely as finding a space alien on your back deck grilling a steak. When I see something false (and boy do I see a lot), I pause and contemplate posting a factchecked article from a legitimate news source, but then I choose not to, because changing a person’s mind is about as probable as winning the Mega Millions lottery.

And so, with a few weeks left before another contentious election, I urge everyone to stop posting their political rants and opinions on Facebook, and stop “liking” and sharing the political memes your friends are sharing. Make up your own mind on who you want to lead this country forward and just go vote in November without big fanfare. Quietly step out of the echo chamber and into the light. Let’s all agree to disagree, and let’s be civil about it. And let’s get back to posting photos of happy times and vacations, cat and dog videos, and the good stuff that makes life beautiful, for those are the true unifiers of the Internet and the world.