For politics, person-to-person beats tweet-to-tweet
To care about politics in the age of social media is to be a little angry all the time. If the 24-hour cable news cycle isn't enough, Twitter and Facebook will help you find something new and enraging to click on 86,400 seconds a day.
To care about politics in the age of social media is to be a little angry all the time.
If the 24-hour cable news cycle isn't enough, Twitter and Facebook will help you find something new and enraging to click on 86,400 seconds a day.
This primary election has been brutal. Even if you have a candidate you're passionate about, especially if you do, the Internet can be toxic.
Toxic yet alluring. Why is it so much more tempting to click on an article with a headline you abhor than one you agree with?
Lab mice are smarter than that.
But I do it. I don't generate many political posts myself, but I consume them, ravenously. And as a writer, I do enough stress-eating in front of the computer.
Online rage isn't cathartic, like yelling at a bad call on the football field, or "gesturing" at the cab that almost hit you in the crosswalk. You experience it alone, in silence, while holding a small, fragile, electronic device.
A smartphone doesn't have the heft of a pitchfork.
Not that pitchforks belong in politics, but it seems many social-media users are more interested in generating virtual angry mobs than productive political discourse, much less revolution.
You can't march in a straight line while looking down at your phone.
The agita was getting to me, so I tried to reduce my Internet-induced bile.
First, whenever I would see a political post that got my blood pumping, I'd recenter and pay it forward by retweeting a GIF of a kitten falling asleep, or a puppy doing a somersault, or any cute baby animal image I could find.
The Internet's greatest achievement is its catalog of cute.
Yeah, yeah, also the worldwide information exchange - but have you seen the GIF of the baby sloth handing a person a flower? It's special.
But cute couldn't compete with the production line of click-bait hot takes and insulting memes.
I tried "muting" or "unfollowing" those users who vehemently disagreed with me and following many more who shared my views so that I could live in a peaceful bubble of validation.
Yes, this is intellectually dissatisfying and goes against my belief in the value of varied opinions. But I might have stuck with it to get through this election, if only it had worked.
Many of the strangers I agreed with online mainly wanted to vent their own rage to a receptive audience. They shared the most preposterous articles in order to point out the bias and falsehoods, and they retweeted the most offensive trolls to showcase their snarky retorts.
The camaraderie of feeling in the trenches together came at the cost of feeling even more under siege.
Echo chambers are still loud.
I'm not interested in being right and proving others wrong. Political discussion has become so polarized, even within parties, that you can feel like you're hated for your views - and that hurts.
Or it infuriates.
Then I had a novel idea: Get offline.
My candidate was having a rally, and I decided to go by myself. I felt dorky and exposed, unused to having my political views out in the sunlight. But as I waited in line, I struck up a conversation with a fellow supporter. We gushed about our candidate, but we also discussed how her brother supports the opponent. No one was angry about it.
I was so moved by the positivity at the rally, I signed up to phone bank. Calling strangers is awkward, but when you're talking human-to-human, even dissenters are pretty polite. And some of the supporters were so excited to get to the polls, despite hardships like caring for a sick spouse, or wrangling two kids under age 6, or standing in line after a 12-hour shift, I'd hang up the phone misty-eyed.
I graduated to canvassing. Approaching strangers on the street goes against my training as a New Yorker, but after one tough day, I took along the best icebreaker: my dog. I crafted him a bandanna with the campaign logo (the dork ship has sailed) and had a great day talking to supporters.
Volunteering has made me more invested in my candidate, and yet, I feel . . . happy?
I'm reminded that politics is about community: people joining together to try and come up with the best answers to tough questions and the best ways to take care of one another.
I prefer politics in person.
Look for Lisa Scottoline's new emotional thriller, "Most Wanted" in stores now. Also look for Lisa and Francesca's humor collection "Does This Beach Make Me Look Fat?" and Lisa's latest Rosato & DiNunzio novel, "Corrupted."