This week I would like to share something unexpected and wonderful that happened. Perhaps it has always been there and I am just this moment starting to notice it. It can be hard to look past the incessant bickering about who got their information from a better source than whom. But over the past week I have noticed a significant increase in people sending friendly, caring, even loving messages to other people over the internet.
Maybe it started with the folks who sent facebook flowers to each other in order to increase the number of happy posts and decrease the amount of suck. If so, good on you whoever thought up that one. But if that was the catalyst, it sure didn't stop there. I have seen friends and family send each other loving messages and poetry, quoted and original. I have seen pleasant blog and vlog posts with kind and supportive comments. I have even witnessed intelligent arguments about issue that people hold dear that didn't devolve into name calling and bickering.
Is the internet growing up? Are its denizens learning that it is possible to think of others rather than whine for what they want? If so, I don't expect it to endure. Growing up is a long slow process with great leaps forward that are often followed by periods of regression. Anyone who has raised children can attest to this. But the idea makes sense. Google recently turned 14. MySpace was started about 11 years ago. If you consider these dates as relevant in birthing the internet as we currently understand it, we are just getting to the point as a community when we start looking beyond ourselves and consider that others exist as more than a backdrop to our own lives.
I'm proud of you this week internet. I hope you can figure out a way to make this last. That doesn't mean you won't backslide. I know there will be times when you can't help but troll the world like the massive and ubiquitous grumpy cat you are. But I know you can be better than that and I hope to see it again soon.
Love,
Christine
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