Has Social Media Really Gone Bad, Or Were We Always This Way?

We here at our radio stations try to keep things up to date our on Facebook pages - we want you to know the latest, and social media can be the easiest way to get that done. But then I was looking through my own personal account the other day and made a decision.
I recently had to unfriend someone I knew in college on Facebook.  Granted, we've sort of lost touch over the years. He lives in a completely different state, is married, and has had two kids.  We used to talk on the phone every other month, but it's like he's a completely different person now! It's all conspiracy theories about the government putting chemicals in your brain to control you and how the Illuminati are living in our basements.  It was funny at first, but then I started to realize that he believes it - and gets very very angry if someone disagrees with him on it.  I didn't engage him, but it was pretty bad.  Name calling, swearing, the whole bit.  It just got so that couldn't scroll fast enough past his posts and I just thought - what's the point of having this person there at all? I don't HAVE to, after all. In the end,  I just had to click that button.

What is it in recent years that has made us so eager to be nasty on social media? I know it's not all bad, I see positive things on Twitter and TikTok all the time. But for some reason, the book of faces tends to get people really riled up.  It's gotten to the point for me that I hardly ever update what's actually happening in my life on there. I just post links to music videos or funny things or whatever.  I don't actually talk about myself much.  Maybe that's best?

It wasn't always this way. I remember in the early days of having an account, I would just type literal gibberish to make people laugh.  People would post pictures of their food or their dog or their car or something.  Now it's like, a lot of negative stuff.  But that negative stuff had to come from somewhere, like it did from my friend.  He must have either changed after I knew him, or those beliefs were there all along and he just didn't feel comfortable sharing them with me. It can be confusing to know which is which.

So I thought I'd ask you guys about your experiences with social media or Facebook.  Have you ever had to unfriend someone - and if you have, why?  Would you want to know why someone unfriended you on Facebook?

Socially yours,
Behka