First Casualty of the Obama Administration

urg:

Last night while on Facebook, I noticed that I was unable to access the account of a close friend. A friend in whose wedding I served as a bridesmaid. Thinking it was a Facebook glitch, I e-mailed her this morning to check in.

She wrote back saying that due to things that were said during the election, she thought it best to remove me as a friend.

I’ll be the first to say that my passions were ignited during the election season, but despite the fact that Facebook “friends” made utterly racists comments in their status messages I never defriended them. While their opinions may differ from mine and I might be disgusted by their tone and content, I do see it as part of their rights to say what they think.

So, my progressive values and belief in Barack Obama cost me a friend. But, in the end, I think I got a whole lot more.

this is a legit reality of young america.  facebook (and social networks in general) introduced a whole new dynamic to self-expression and belief systems that haven’t been part of general elections past.

i’m very interested in seeing how these things develop in real-time.  this is happening now.  not “has happened with someone else” or “will be happening in the future.”  decisions about your person are being made in real-time based on opinions drawn from your digital imprints.  i’ve encountered similar situations during this election.  friends who i see socially that might oppose things i believe in or make assumptions/broad-stroke statements about one candidate or another.  then having to go meet up with them, drink a beer and talk about something completely different makes it very hard to keep a straight face.