An Apology for My New Year's Post

The power of social media to push some (many?) to lock-step positions overwhelmed me at the end of 2016/beginning of 2017 when I posted something like, "Fast away the old year passes...but not fast enough." I had succumbed to the pressure to join in, to seem to be part of something bigger than myself, to attract a lot of "likes." I am sorry I posted it.

My post was sorta cute, hardly original, and generated a tiny response. But it was driven by the many expressions of gratitude that awful 2016 was over from friends who, like me, were sorely disappointed by the elections' outcomes. Even as I typed and posted it I was thinking, Really, Dean?  Is that what you really think? You know that overall 2016 was a good year for you and your family, for many people you know and millions you don't know, and that the act of turning a calendar page does make a hill of beans difference anyway. So why put this up there for all to see?

If I'd been thinking, I'd have posted something like, Actually, 2016 was a good year for me and my family in most ways, even considering the outcome of the election. I kind of hate see it go.

(If the election were the reason for the enthusiastic farewell to 2016 on part of many, who among them was thinking 2017 will be better when 2017 is the year all those who were elected in 2016 take office and will begin their dirty work?)

My New Year's experience alerts me is to the enormous power social media have to numb our ability to think and speak for ourselves. It is easy to see this power when it affects people with whom we disagree, and hard to see it when it settles into our own brains. My news feed is bloated with shares about how great President Obama is/was, and about how awful President-elect Trump is/will be. Few of them advance the discussion of either person's present or future impact. In fact, the avalanche of them chokes attempts at meaningful exchanges.

Frankly, it was refreshing to read Cornel West's "unappreciation" for Obama's presidency. Posts like that, even when I disagree with parts of them, wake me up, make me think, make me question the assumptions swirling around me, and force me to seek conclusions I can call my own.

So, to any who care, I offer this apology for misleading you: For me, 2016 was quite good as years go. I regret inviting you to think otherwise.