Happy New Year.
Happy fresh start.
Happy do-over. Or redo-over. Or do-new.

2016 was quite a year.
These are just words on a screen. Any tone you read was drawn of your own implication.
But you did read that with tone, didn’t you? You couldn’t help it.
It was quite a year.

To be fair, 2016 had some good stuff.
And it had some bad stuff.
Like all years.
But in this era of immediate action/reaction/overreaction, it was the most emotionally charged year I’ve ever known. And I was a teen in the 80’s, so that’s saying a lot.

My goal in the new year–this fresh, pristine, untainted new year–is to keep it clean as long as I personally can. I’d like you to join me in attaining this goal.

The award for unnecessary drama went to 2016. There seemed to be a lot of dishing it out while lacking the ability to take it. We’re all getting way too free and easy with the “attacktion” that the internet allows.

Conflicting posts saturated social media. According to their streams, the same person who claimed to seek peace wanted to execute certain persons of political affiliation. The same person who proposed global respect also seemed to think it was okay to alienate half the population with derogatory terms. The same person who posted articles regarding tolerance also posted mocking memes. There’s humor, and then there’s hypocrisy.

I get it–social media is a way to have our voices heard (seen), our points of view validated, our feelings shared. Life isn’t all Kumbaya and rainbows, there’s a lot of crap going on in this world and we need to talk about it. But all this instant access is not good for us.

Are we trying to sway an opinion based on fact and name-calling? Or are we giddy at an excuse to passive-aggressively call names?

We need to revisit the idea of thinking before we speak (post). Of respecting each other regardless of our beliefs. We don’t have to like everyone, we don’t have to agree on everything. But hate is never good. And hiding behind the keyboard while we promote bullying through cruel and unusually inaccurate posts is really shitty.

Join me as I try to personally curb my online negativity.
Let’s work together to keep 2017 shit-free.