My Social Experiment

Over the past week I posted four items on my Facebook timeline, varied in topics.  I was going over them a day or two ago and noticed something.  Each post was different, yet it showed something in the readership that showed a trend.  I sort of backed into it by accident, but it ended up being an informal social experiment.

Please understand that this is not intended to shame anyone, and believe me when I say there was no subterfuge or planned agenda involved.  Each post stands completely on its own and was in line with my moods, thoughts or inspirations at the time.  The intent of this article is to urge folks to get the whole story.

It says a lot about us as users of social media.  I recently heard on a radio talk show that in this age of social media we have become a more judgment-based society.  Recent polarizations among the political tribes bears that out.  But it’s even more pernicious than just being confined to political ideologies.  I usually go out of my way to not discuss politics on Facebook, because I don’t want to feed into the divisiveness of the times.

The speed of information coupled with visuals has had a major impact in this societal trend, in my opinion.

Nearly a week ago I saw a video that was originally made by Tom White of a song that I was privileged to record with Rob Fahey in the late 80s.  That video was excellent, Tom captured the imagery and spirit of the song perfectly, and to be completely honest, every single time I viewed it I would either tear up or start bawling outright.  The song was about the plight of the homeless who are invisible to many if not most of us.  Tom re-released the video with edited footage of a live performance that I sat in on with Rob a couple of years ago intercut within the original video.

My posted message when sharing the video was to implore people to have empathy for the invisible homeless especially in this holiday season.

My next post was a share of a homeless-looking spaced-out hippie looking guy who had a message for us.  An important message about judging folks.

The most recent posting was a 500-600 word piece I wrote about some of the symbolism in the Santa Claus story.

As of this writing, the public response to these separate posts has been:

Behind The Wall music video share – 18 emojis, 3 comments and 6 shares

Crazy Hippie guy share – 2 emojis, 3 comments and 0 shares

Article about the real Santa Claus – 61 emojis, 15 comments and 4 shares

Now, here’s the kicker, and I’m going to digress a bit.  On December 3rd I posted a photo of my little Benji cat when he couldn’t have been more than 5 weeks old.  That post earned 103 emojis, 25 comments and 0 shares.

So, looking at this data, the most important topics of those four mentioned above were in the lower half of acceptance, with the most benign being at the top of the list.  The most important message of these posts was from Matthew Silver, and got the worst response.  Top on the list (and no doubt with the highest “cuteness” factor, was the little kitty photo post).

My thoughts are that things that don’t challenge us are judged differently than things that do challenge our sensibilities.  Cats and holidays are safe, looking at homeless people and seemingly crazed people are not.  

But even deeper than that, it underscores our not wishing to see the unpalatable.  The crazy hippie Matthew Silver emphasized this…he has the best and wisest message of all, and people look away.  

How easily we focus on the messenger and ignore the message.