Are You the Target Audience?

Social media is something I look forward to spending a bit of time with (well too much, actually) every day. During divisive times, social media changes and instead of being fun can cause anger, hurt, and worse.

Sometimes I post something, and I know not every one of my friends or followers will agree. I understand we support different causes, or candidates or whatever. If you post something about a candidate and I support the other candidate, that is absolutely fine. If I post something about the candidate I support know that my post was intended for anyone still on the fence. As a conservative leaning person, I see everyday how those types of posts are censored and shadow-banned on social media, and my hope by sharing is to help make additional information available.

Sometimes I see things that I think might give hope. I recently came across some figures about surviving coronavirus. I took a screen shot and shared it, thinking this was really good news

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What I didn’t expect was to be jumped on and told this chart was bull and wishful thinking. I didn’t expect my post would cause anger and hurt. The reactions left me upset, so I deleted my post, and yet I feel I need to respond. I’m sure I’m not the only one this is happening to.

First of all the post is not bogus. The chart is on the CDC website and you can find the information here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html If you don’t want to wade through the entire article, here is a screen shot of the portion these figures came from.

Now I realize survival ratios are not the entire coronavirus story. Over 200,000 deaths is horrible, yet even that is not the whole story.

After I posted a friend reached out to me privately and shared how devastating her experience with contracting coronavirus has been. I realize there is more to it than just surviving, and of course surviving does not mean it isn’t a serious disease with serious ramifications. But these figures above do not reflect the fear mongering we hear on the news every night, or the continuing restrictions on everyone’s lives and businesses.

I have had similar experiences when I shared optimistic information about hydroxychloroquine. Followers jumped on my post pointing out how ridiculous it was to think this could help with coronavirus, or how bogus my sources were. Hydroxychloroquine is another subject being censored on social media. Even doctors are not allowed to share experiences without being censored.

Now we are a month away from an extremely divisive election. People will be posting things you may not agree with. If your first instinct is to comment bull sh*t or add something nasty and hurtful to that post, or to criticize the source of their information, ask yourself, Am I the target audience for this post? Is my comment helpful? If every time you read someone’s posts it makes your blood boil, maybe you aren’t the target audience, and maybe it’s time to “Snooze” that person for 30 days. Facebook has a wonderful feature where all you do is look for the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner of their post and choose “Snooze for 30 days.” If you snooze someone soon, you won’t have to look at their posts practically until after the election.

Another thing to try is scroll by. We can ignore many things if we try. Posts that are a nasty attack on the candidate you support can be difficult to get past. That’s where Snoozing, and limiting social media time might help.

I will be giving more thought to what I share in the next month in particular. But keep in mind I use my social media for business as well as personal, and you may not be my target audience. Another great feature on Facebook, is the “like” button. If none of my social media audience click the “like” button, I get a clear message about my post. I even enjoy the occasional respectful debate of issues, but lately that doesn’t seem to happen.

The world would be a boring place if we all agreed on everything. Know that if you and I differ on important issues, I can respect you and love you, while disagreeing with you. We can agree we are blessed to live in a country where we are free to speak our mind, even if it means criticizing our leaders. We can agree on all the important things, like wanting the best for our families and our country. If we disagree on how to go about getting that, we can pray God helps us in the end. God bless America.