I hear it a lot.

I’m giving up Facebook!

I don’t like what I see on Facebook, so I’m shutting my account down!

I’m tired of all the hatefulness. I’m cutting out Facebook!

It’s not just Facebook. The internet brings out some pretty gross human (?) behavior. I was reading a blog entry the other day from a woman I have followed since the birth of blogs. The entry was about the death of her dog and the comments left by some people were so awful and hateful. Some of the trolls on her site would even attack the nice comments left by her other readers. There is something about the online world that just brings out the ugliest in a person. Facebook is a bit more complicated than the blogging world, mostly because it is far more crowded. The idea was to create a space to bring people together and Facebook has done just that. I’m just not sure the founders realized how those connection would sometimes be made, like through a shared hatred for diversity. Facebook makes it so easy to share the worst, most reactionary drivel that it is no surprise to me that someone would hit a limit of seeing that crap and say “Enough!”

I have felt this way on a number of occasions. Especially when I see a hateful, often racist, posting from someone that I thought to know as kind and Christian. I mean people change over the years. Things go wrong in a life, but when you follow up a post about the good Lord with a post about hate, then somethings must have really gone wrong with your life. I see these posting and the rants and they disgust me. Yet, I’m still there. I am still on Facebook because I believe in that space to connect people in a good way. I don’t live near my family and some of my closest friends. I use that space to help me stay close, but I also try to use that space to share information, to create a space for open and effective communication and to spread goodness. This is why every time I get a birthday notification, no matter if I only know that person in passing, I will tell that person to have a spectacularly happy birthday. I want you to know that I don’t just type the words to type them or in hopes of some sort of acknowledgment. I truly, with my whole heart, mean the good wishes that I post on a person’s Facebook page. I feel that by posting heartfelt birthday wishes, reliably sourced information and an open and effective communication platform, I am creating a Facebook that I want to see.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi

So I am so thankful for each and every person who left me birthday wishes, not just for the kindness of being told “Happy Birthday”. Whether you realize it or not, your birthday wishes play into my plan to make Facebook a better place. Thank you.