Many of you know I am a political junkie. I watch all the cable news commentary shows on CNN, FOX and MSNBC every night. I listen to them all day at work and in my car.
After hearing a speech from the president elect in mid December, I decided to stop watching political news. I was going all in on the head-in-sand method. I don’t want to know, I couldn’t do anything about any of the issues, so why get my self worked up.
To my surprise, I have done a very good job of kicking the habit. But “news commentary’ still crept into my daily life via social media. This was a real issue as I have friends on both sides of the aisle who like me, feel very strongly about their positions.
I needed to take drastic action, Facebook deactivation was the only recourse I could take.
But, could I really do that? Cold turkey on both politics and social media? A daunting endeavor I must say.
So what the heck, I just did it. So to those who can’t see my profile anymore, or don’t see me running my fingers aka my mouth on social media, that is why.
Now to be completely transparent, I have my back up account Winston Mancuso. Winston was my German wirehaired pointer, my buddy and hunting partner who passed away about 10 years ago or so.
I used to post things that I might say if I was a dog. Humans were referred to as the “bringer of food.” Winston made fun of me quite often. In a sense, it came in handy to keep me somewhat grounded and to not take myself too seriously.
The good thing about Winston is that he doesn’t have many people on his Facebook page, and I can keep certain pages that I am an admin for, including the Illinois Valley News page.
This way, I can still use social media to keep on top of things in our community. The added bonus is that I won’t be tempted to jump into the cesspool of political discussions.
I no longer have to read name-calling, and yes, I am guilty of doing that as well.
Apparently, ignorance truly is bliss, as I’m enjoying my head in the sand. Thank you for picking up this week’s paper. Enjoy! ~djm
