Using Love to Clear the Cesspool of Social Media
In 1998, I was given a choice— use the Internet to love or to hate? — and choosing love was one of the best choices I’ve ever made
A stormy November night in 1998 in the family room of the house I grew up in and I’m in another world.
Staring at my dad’s new PC, I’m watching names like Sunshine, Jack Straw and Sugaree83 flash by me on the screen, each with a comment attached. They come too fast to read them all, I gotta pick one.
Fucking shitty Washington weather, the 25-year-old who’s just moved home from Los Angeles thinks, Sunshine it is.
I read her comments and a picture emerges: she’s a Colorado gal, a mother of a toddler, into spiritual stuff and reads palms. Oh, and like me, she’s a Deadhead. Intrigued, I am about to send a greeting when:
“YOU CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR HATE OR LOVE,” a voice booms like a burning bush in my head, “WHICH IS IT?”
Bugger off.
“I HEARD THAT.”
“Of course you did,” I respond, this time out loud because my parents are out to dinner somewhere. “But why do I have to make this choice?”
