Facebook ruminations … I see ‘dead’ people

“Only dead and old people use Facebook.”

That one-liner surfaces from time to time on my social media feeds – TikTok in particular. (I also heard it last week from a late-night comedian.)

Dead people. Old people. And mean people and bullies and narcissists and confused people – apparently – and leave me “shaking my head” in wonderment people and “are-we-even-on-the-same-planet” people” and … Good people for sure, but most of what I encountered this past week was pretty much the first group.

To explain. I told our managing editor to upload a copy of the article I wrote last week – “Answering the call (out)” – to Facebook. As a refresher: The candidate opposing the current Warner Robins mayor … yes, I know his name, no, I don’t care about mentioning it … accused us of intentionally cropping him out of the picture. He then escalated his claim by saying we did it because we wanted the current mayor to get re-elected and his brother was quick to get on board to peddle their conspiracy theory. Balderdash!  

Anyway, I wrote a response in defense of our name, and in particular our staff who were completely innocent. I had it posted on Facebook half-expecting the trolls might get me – “haters gonna hate” – but also half-hoping our accusers might do the right thing and apologize. (I intentionally finished the article with an olive branch – extended them grace in the hope they might.) They didn’t.

The others on the other hand. 

Of the 75 comments, the overwhelming majority were biased (right in line with a culture that is in that state right now), opinionated, more (toxic) or less (combative) and mostly along the lines of: “You made a mistake. Just fix it.” For the record. We weren’t accused of making a mistake. We weren’t accused of doing something on accident. We were accused of actions that were intentional. Deliberate. Calculated.

Everybody makes mistakes. “If” we had made a mistake, we would be quick to admit it, ask forgiveness, make it right. I pointed that out in the first article, but we weren’t defamed, libeled, over a mistake. They wanted to say it was malicious. On purpose. Part of a plan. I thought I pointed that out clearly in the article, but this particular group of Facebookers jumped to the wrong conclusion. (I don’t think half of them even read the article.) I wish they’d fix their “mistake”.

Some claimed once again that we “cropped” the photo. I told the truth in my first article, and I’ll state it again once more for the record: No, we did not!

One person called me out because I quoted the “memes” used with the brothers’ original post. I got a chuckle out of it, thought it ironic. “So, let me get this straight. You’re okay with any of the 3.7 billion Facebook users reading your posts, but you have a problem with the approximate 5,000 potential Houston Home Journal readers seeing them? Interesting.”

One person suggested I should have taken the “high road”. One, that’s the path the brothers took and I felt we had too much to lose to leave them on their high-and-mighty perch. Two, I found the statement puzzling. This was from a person who worked in our county’s judicial system. I questioned to myself: “So, let me get this straight. Your organization is libeled. It is clear they were libeled. The opposition has no evidence to prove otherwise. You have the facts to support your case. Yet you would go ahead and let your organization be libeled? Well, if you insist.”

And on they went. More of the same.

I apologize dear reader. For writing about this once again, for potentially keeping this feud going, for not putting this issue to bed, for exposing you to this kind of negativity. Negativity is a cancer! It should be avoided at all times.

On a positive, our promise, our pledge, is still our promise, our pledge: We promise, we pledge, to always provide you balanced, unbiased, impartial, fair, just, coverage in The Houston Home Journal! No exceptions!

“Only dead and old people use Facebook.”

No offense to us old people (in truth, several years ago I went from more than 1,000 friends to 15 – all family) but I know where the “dead” part comes from. These cynics, critics and the like: I see dead people. They are dead to me!