S is for Social Media and Surprises

I’m doing this blogging A to Z thing. Today is S.

Social media in general sort of surprises me.

People are reading this blog that didn’t really exist until a few weeks ago. That’s kind of cool.

My Instagram account has a bunch of artsy-fartsy pictures of shopping carts. It’s an inside joke between my daughter and me and I forget that other people can – and do – see my Instagram account. I’m surprised when people ask about it.

Facebook has been a source of many surprises – both good and bad. Tonight’s banana bread, for instance, got much more of a response than I would have expected.

A few years ago, I was surprised to see a cartoon depicting violence against immigrants as something to laugh at posted on a friend’s Facebook. We had words.

The other night, I quoted something I saw on someone else’s Facebook page that clearly struck a nerve with a few people. This was the post:

You know how sometimes you’ll see a comment in a thread from someone you knew a long time ago, and you think “Wow, I haven’t thought about that person since the 80s. I wonder what they’re up to,” and then you click their name?

Did that earlier and found this gem:
“Gays are like 3 or 4 percent of the population. Why should the rest of us have to suffer so they can get everything they want?”

Right, because that’s what’s happening. Gays are getting EVERYTHING they want. And the rest of the world is SUFFERING because of it.

And then you shake your head and smile because reunions aren’t mandatory.

I don’t know what I expected, but I got a good number of comments from people who were clearly appalled.

The 80s was high school and college for me, and I have great – really great – memories of both. But I also very distinctly remember that homophobia was the norm, not the exception. So hearing that someone I knew back then takes issue with gay people – unfortunately not a surprise.

The person in question was a friend of a friend of a friend; someone I knew in passing. Their ignorance and homophobia was only surprising in that my vague memories were of someone generally nice. But I didn’t know them very well, so for all I know, they may have always felt that way. I kind of hope they did. I’d rather think of someone not keeping up than moving in the wrong direction.