GOSMGO

 The nature of media is to give us more and more of what we seem to be craving. That's how it perpetuates itself, which means what they're dishing out to us is perpetual. How do we change the tenor of what they're serving once we understand the reciprocity of the relationship? First, we have to stop responding and reacting to what they put out. At the end of the day, they're profit driven. We need to watch and read what's positive, informing, affirming, and creating unity, and eschew the garbage, the mindless, the antagonistic, the slamming, the idle gossip

Every single day, every hour of the day, they're serving up topics for us to be irritated and angry about. It's full of stories of missteps, injustices, quarrels, stories about things people are wearing, where they're going, what they're doing, whether it's our business or not, and it's usually not. They make us think we all need to concern ourselves with and judge, opine, and take sides on everything and everyone, which we really don't. And when we do, we just create additional drama, controversy, division, discontent, and unhappiness. They are literally seeing us an addictive substance that is bad for us. We've come to crave 

 https://www.progressbaptist.com/about/church-covenant/ To walk circumspectly in the world; to be just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in our deportment; To avoid all tattling, backbiting, and excessive anger; To abstain from the sale and use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage, and to be zealous in our efforts to advance the kingdom of our Saviour. We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; To remember each other in prayer; to aid each other in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy in speech; To be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation, and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay.

 Why must we give people a verbal beat down online even for small transgressions? If someone misspeaks or days something unthinking, which let's face it, we all have done or will do at some point, people on social media have to go on angry attack. They pile on, get on the case to identify the person if the Internet doesn't know their name, give out their personal data, and pound them into submission. They want them to lose their reputations, jobs, homes, and even their lives in some cases,over things that in the overall scheme of things matter very little. What do we get out of doing that?

 As soon as we see something we immediately look for a way to take a side or to be in opposition to someone about it or for a way to create another in the dynamic. We immediately have to give our opinion on it but we should not need to give an opinion on it it is not necessary

 People branding themselves People turning their children into commodities and pimping them out Allowing people to profit off of meanness and talking about other people and criticizing them that should not be profitable now it's even even can become an occupation

 We can stand to Let a lot of stuff go.

The middle-aged man standing next to his pickup truck two parking spaces over from me sputtered those final words to an angry worker who had just ushered him out of the takeout lobby of my neighborhood seafood restaurant. It was the end of a heated exchange I only caught the tail end of after pulling into the lot to pick up lunch for my family. As near as I can recall, this is what was said and how the next few minutes played out: I was about to get out of my car when I saw the two men emerge from the building, both fuming. I heard the uniformed worker, a young black man, yell, "You need to pay for those drinks, sir!" Then, the worker mumbled, "Racist mother******." The middle-aged man, who was white, heavy-set, and appeared to be in his sixties, set the paper bag he was carrying on the ground, took a bill from his wallet, and shoved it at the worker. "There! Keep the change!"  The man stormed in my direction. I stayed put in my SUV, fearing his wrath. He ...

 People can assert whatever they want, and there are always people who want to believe it.

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 Because it's so vast, you can always find a community of people who think the way you so, even if what you think is completely wack and without merit. And once you find and establish that community, its very easy to convince yourselves you're not wack, you're just special and more perceptive than everyone else. that kind of feeling is addictive and makes you feel powerful. it makes you feel like you have a duty to inform and convince others of your crazy and act on your impulses, because in your mind that action has become imperative to saving mankind.

 It happens a lot, loss of friends, family, coworkers. Saddest part is it happens because we've become inflamed by an event or issue that in a few days or weeks it's very likely we won't be passionate about, but the damage to the relationship is done.

Even if t you leave the platforms, the way they intersect with news makes it impossible to ignore or discount what's happening on them.

 Karening Cancel Culture Backlashing Clapping Back Viralty Manipulation of Images to Mislead Reviving Past Lives for the purpose of judging and doing harm Cancel Culture The "citizen" journalist The "researcher" The "influencer" Prostitution of families and cute kids Pursuit of making money with little effort doing nothing of real value Making money or getting attention just for slamming or shaming Hypocrisy at all time high It's become easier to ignore when you said something would happen and it didn't by being with a crew that continues to talk and carry on  without reflecting, introspection or checking itself.

On social media we're cultivating a belief system than is unsupportable, a system in which we've come to believe our opinions  matter in every situation and context and the exercise of our free speech is important and shouldn't be curbed or restrained in any way. We insert ourselves into conversations that really have nothing to do with us, and act as though all opinions are of equal value, when that is rarely the case. We opine at length on topics we have very little information on, make judgments, and broadcast them to the world.  It's wrong, and it's a trend that needs to stop.

 I loved reading from an early age, which was not so unusual for someone of my generation and those that came before us. Most of what we knew, aside from practical knowledge and conventional wisdom, came from reading books, magazines and newspapers. We also wrote a lot. Letter writing and letter reading was for most people an enjoyable pastime.  Because we read a lot, we also knew how to express ourselves effectively in writing. We weren't all pros at it, of course, but even poorly educated or indifferent students usually had the basics down and knew how to spell simple, frequently-used words and phrases. When you read professionally edited material regularly, it's hard not to pick up on the rules of grammar, punctuation, and style. That doesn't happen anymore, and social media has played a big part in the change. I am almost convinced at this point that America's schools are filled with English teachers who have given up on trying to teach students the difference betwe...

 In the real world, there are slow news days, and that's a good thing. A slow news day means we did less damage to the planet, other humans and ourselves than usual. It means nothing got blown up, no one shot a slew of innocents, no one well known got arrested, no public utterances reached the level of outrageousness, and no major investigation yielded fruit. But there can be no such thing as a slow news day on social media.  If nothing catastrophic has occurred once people wake up to a new day, social media will birth something to talk and obsess over. It could be a rehashing of a retired newsy bit, the exposure of an old post from a digging expedition, or the magnification and elevation of something minor but new in people's news feeds. The social media appetite, once whetted, must be fed daily and continuously. If there's nothing legitimately newsworthy, a trumped up issue will suffice. The bad thing about trumped up issues is while they may come and go quickly in social...