AntiSocial Media

I started writing this post in December last year, I think pretty much the only thing that has changed much in that time is that social media has got worse! 

Earlier this year I was feeling attacked, marginalised and oppressed. I was being told that I was a freak, a danger to women, a "groomer" and a bad influence on society. I shouldn't be allowed to participate in public events, I shouldn't be allowed to play sport, shouldn't be allowed out ~ exclusion from public facilities would see to that! 

I would see articles from the on line versions of newspapers, extracts from public sites, pieces shared from (what I can only call) hate sites. All this got me down, how could it not? As far as I am concerned this is not a "Toxic debate" neither is it a question of freedom of expression. For me this is a personal attack, a direct attack on my ability to take my place in society. I became both frightened and depressed, these attacks were just so constant, so unrelenting, surely the whole world was against me! 

Of course the whole world is not against me, just a very few, very vocal, very confused misandrists, ("people who dislike, despise or are strongly prejudiced against men" and anyone they perceave to be men) it was my social media that was amplifying their attacks. My "friends" felt the need to share these attacks, most of which I would never have come across if they hadn't. In effect they were doing the haters work for them! I needed to protect myself, so I did, ~ I simply withdrew from social media. And the strange thing is that my life has carried on, I didn't miss it, indeed I started to feel a lot better.

I am back on social media now, and little has improved, I'm just a little bit more selective in what I see. I keep up with real news through the usual channels and I find the haters are having much less impact on my state of mind.