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.. because you can!

There’s been a lot of turmoil this week on the Columbus social media scene. And it’s not even important what the original arguments were about, as they’ve tended to give way to meta arguments over the ‘proper’ use of social media. And as I write this, I’m realizing that I’ve seen this happen with every virtual community/ message board that I’ve been on since 1998. It starts out as a close community, new people show up, some of them “don’t get it” (read: offer a new perspective), someone throws a punch, people take sides, Abraham Lincoln tries to preserve the union.

It’s a little tiring to watch – not just because it happens to every community and every community somehow thinks it’s unique – but because the arguments always end the same way, with some peace-making platitude that shuts down the argument, yet resolves nothing. Something like this:

Social media is about getting your hands dirty. And if someone is an asshole, that’s the price of admission.

.. Ok, but if one person gets to be an asshole, remember that everyone else gets to be one also. So instead of a community of people with a common vision, we have a community of assholes. And maybe that’s a natural progression of a community and then it segments itself.

Well, that’s one way to do it. Not that we shouldn’t challenge each other, but it can be done civily. Does a challenge need to start with a glove slap?

OK – now go ahead and call me one. But I can at least claim that it’s not my intention to be.