Anyone else feel like they do this too much? I know I need breaks to keep myself going (as much as I screw around online, I do get a lot of writing work done when I sit down and do it), but I just can't help thinking after my third or so comment on a MoviePilot thread on Facebook, or a comment on a Robert Reich or Hugh Howey post that I'm just wasting my breath. Throwing precious energy and time into something that might as well be an empty void. I think that for a moment, but it usually goes away. See, I can't help but counter ignorance when I see it. The internet is an open public forum, like a courtyard in a park, so when I see someone yelling something stupid in the middle of it I can't just walk by. The only thing I can do is choose to walk in a different park, but everyone seems content on having their online get-togethers in Facebook Park (I don't bother with the other sites. I gave up on "being hip" over a decade ago).
I think another reason I can't help reading the comments after a post from one of the above mentioned groups or figures on Facebook, is that I truly want to know other people's thoughts on the subject, even though I should know by now that I will often be annoyed with some of the conclusions others reach, or at least in the way they choose to voice these opinions. I think part of this is just a part of my personality. I've always enjoyed being social with people no matter their opinions on anything. You fall in love with a person's personality, you learn what they think about George Bush later, and by then you've already decided if you love them or hate them, so anything else is just a quirk that warms your heart that much more to them. But another reason I think I'm drawn to discussions on the Facebook comment sections is that at certain age (cough, 30) all your friends have moved off, had kids, or landed jobs so stressful their personal lives have been crippled. Combine that with my social disposition and it just makes sense that I "waste" time in the public forum of Facebook Park.
Do I wish I didn't do this? I don't know. At most, it's 30 minutes of my day. Maybe those 30 minutes get my mind primed, gutting the fluff so I'm ready to mine for rubies. Maybe it doesn't. Either way, I don't think it's a big enough slot of wasted time for me to address it at this point—but thought I'd bring it up anyways, as it's a peculiar thing I do that I sometimes wonder: "why the hell am I doing this?"