"Now remember Herb, no talk of politics or religion tonight," I remember my mother saying to my father many years ago, before leaving for a rare get together with friends.
My father, who spent 16+ years under the tutelage of Jesuits replied, without the tiniest tinge of irony, "What else is there to talk about?"
Though my own Catholic education was restricted to a single year of diminutive nuns who raptly rapped the knuckles of any kindergarten disciple whose attention strayed from the reading of the Ten Commandment, I come by my dogma honestly and Facebook is my pulpit.
In the beginning, I giddily reconnected with old friends. The smell of baby oil and Bubble Yum emanated from the screen as I scrutinized photos of beach barbecues with the skill of a forensic scientist. Joyful journeys down memory lane, soon took a detour down a dark and dangerous road, as reminiscing of past lives turned to goings on in current lives and even more ominously... current events.
Let the unfriending begin! "Wait!" the little voice tells me. "Not until you spend three hours/day for the next 132 days trying to convince someone you once went to a Depeche Mode Concert 23 years ago, that her belief system is all wrong! You owe it to her to set her straight. Yes, you must spend more time researching the existence of climate change for your two line retort, than you did for every high school and college paper you ever wrote combined."
Charts are created. Lego animations are produced, illustrating what the difference between a rise of average temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius versus 2.0 degrees will mean for the planet. Surely this post will settle things.
"What's that my young son? You are hungry and still waiting for me to check your school work? Just one minute while I finish scrolling through the 47 Facebook ads for outdoor lighting, that have mysteriously shown up on my feed, after a quick Google search for solar torch lights. I need to find the post about AOC from my second cousin twice removed, whom I have never met. She is not shrill. She is an empowered woman who happens to have a high pitched voice. What a misogynist."
I have had a tumultuous relationship with social media and particularly Facebook over the past ten years, but can a platform that helped launch the Arab Spring, and disseminate a call to action for millions of Black Lives Matter activists after the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd be all bad? No, but even Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth can have nefarious consequences if it falls into the wrong hands or is used for the wrong purpose.
I have missed too many episodes of South Park with my kids. I have missed too many phone calls with people I love. I have missed too many walks on a sunny day, because I refreshed my Facebook Feed one more time. This year I make a simple pledge, and encourage you all to do the same. I am removing the Facebook app from my phone. It will no longer be the first thing I check in the morning or last thing at night. I can still login on my computer to look at cute pets and kids, but I will avoid the constant scroll. This is the social media road I choose to take this year. Hopefully, it will make all the difference.
