Artwork by Michael DiMilo
Over the two years that I’ve been writing my weekly blog posts, it seems that there has very rarely been anything positive to write about. Between the January 6th insurrection, the continuing pandemic, the rising gun violence and reckless driving fatalities in our city, and various other sundry crises—including the rise of white supremacists, the Russian standoff in the Ukraine, or the rising wealth disparity in this country, there’s not much to be optimistic about. And I don’t think people want to hear about the negatives anymore. I believe we’re all suffering from chronic emotional fatigue. There’s only so much bad news you can absorb without starting to shut down. So, finally, I’m at a loss for words today.
So, what do we do? How do we rejuvenate our broken dreams and jaded sensibilities? We could go to Instagram and watch videos of puppies cavorting or go to TikTok to see the latest in teenage dance crazes, or space out and do a round of online gaming, or binge on Succession or Yellowjackets or the latest of the streaming television series.
Strangely enough, I’ve been finding new inspirations on—of all places, that home of social media conspiracy theories and rumor mongering—Facebook. Granted, that is a lot of crap on that site; everything from contrail conspiracies to celebrity gossip to alien abductions to, yes vaccine disinformation. But there are some good things going on there, too.
I recently became a member of a FB page that focuses solely on 17th and 18th century works of art and displays images of beautiful—and sometimes obscure–paintings. It’s very much like a trip to a virtual museum. From there, I became acquainted with other pages focusing on the art of Asia, the Nordic countries, and the strictly surreal, and, for the most part, discussions about the pieces that are well-thought out and intelligent. Another page, poetry.org, brings a variety of new international works onto their posts. There are dozens of other pages focusing on literature, literary figures, and the publishing industry. In short, Facebook is a lot like the internet as a whole; almost every bit of knowledge is on it—somewhere, but most people aren’t really interested in using the site for anything more than entertainment or shopping. Or pornography.
Heather Cox Richardson, an author and history professor at Boston College, writes daily posts on Facebook that deal with contemporary political issues. Her outstanding essays are insightful and enlightening. The blurb on her page states that she is “a political historian who uses facts and history to put news in context.” Her posts are detailed, well-substantiated, and immaculately documented. But they are lengthy, and even though they read easily, the posts require some effort to get through. There is thinking involved.
There is a page dedicated to the Hubble telescope, another sponsored and run by NASA, and two more dedicated specifically to the Mars Rover Perseverance. On these pages, spectacular images from the red planet, the Jupiter Juno probe, the Hubble, and updates about the new James Webb telescope are readily available.
Another page, Ancient Forests , is dedicated to images of pristine forests and trees from across the world. Other related sites keep track of global warming data, the status of endangered species, and ecologically driven projects.
On the less geeky side of the coin, the Facebook platform offers opportunities for people to reconnect with past friends and acquaintances. I have been able to contact old schoolmates and college buddies I probably wouldn’t have been able to otherwise, which has been a ton of fun—and sometimes definitely weird (but in a good way).
Of course, some of the social interactions on Facebook is problematic. There are trolls, naysayers, rumor mongers, and troublemakers. The anonymity of the platform allows some posters, and commentators, to post spiteful, malicious, cruel, and petty posts—or comments. We’ve all seen it, particularly when politically charged topics are being discussed. The fact that a portion of Facebook has been co-opted by political ideologues of every stripe is more than simply a cause of concern. Misinformation, half-truths, and downright lies have led to the rise of QAnon, white supremacist groups, and was indirectly but at least partly responsible for the January 6th insurrection. If it is not regulated properly, Facebook and other social media platforms will continue to be bully pulpits for extremists, haters, and fanatics.
But the baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater. There is intelligent, informative, and sophisticated content on Facebook. Intelligent and penetrating conversations do take place. It is not solely an entertainment platform like TikTok, Instagram, or the other sites that specialize in quick attention-grabbing image-oriented content like suggestive dancing, cruel pranks, or reality show style videos of airplane passengers or retail customers gone wild. It is difficult to turn away from some of these posts, like being unable not to gape at a traffic accident as you drive by.
These social platforms are very popular. Images sell. Images are easy. They don’t take a long time to process. They’re easy to make and easy to post. And you don’t have to think very hard to participate.
So, when we’re tired of running the same treadmill of ennui, disgust, disenchantment, and fatigue, we can go and view works of art, watch the latest news in space exploration, keep an eye on our environment, or contribute to a forum on the latest in political news.
Or we can watch images of puppies, somebody’s supper, a beautiful landscape, or the latest teen dance craze.
It’s all out there. What you watch (and what you know) is up to you.