Facebook.
Can’t live with it. Can’t live without it. Rarely does a day go by that it’s not tempting to conclude the world would be better off without the soul-sucking, time-wasting, black hole that is social media.
From a recent edition of Wired magazine:
"Social media has brought a level of exposure never seen before in human history—and it turns out being observed by so many people appears to have significant psychological effects. Studies have found that high levels of social media use are connected with an increased risk of symptoms of anxiety and depression. There appears to be substantial evidence connecting people’s mental health and their online habits. Furthermore, many psychologists believe people may be dealing with psychological effects that are pervasive but not always obvious. “It’s become somewhat of an epidemic.”
But if you’re living in a news desert — as we in Polk County do — where else are you going to turn for some sense of what’s going on in local affairs? Here’s an observation from a recent edition of The Atlantic:
“Facebook-group administrators and members described the conundrum of relying on an imperfect platform to create strong, and for many people invaluable, communities.”
Olivia Whiteside isn’t one of the Facebook administrators that The Atlantic reporter consulted, but she might as well have been. She’s one of the main moderators of the Polk County Concerned Citizens Facebook group, which has approximately 1,400 members, making it one of the main internet forums for discussions of local politics and community concerns.
The page was started a few years ago when it became clear the new Tryon International Equestrian Center was going to have a big impact on Polk County, but today the allowed topics of discussion are much broader. Basically, anything that might have once made into the local newspaper is fair game. There are other Facebook pages out there devoted to county affairs, but Polk County Concerned Citizens is easily the most relevant.
Only members can post, and even then, posts have to approved by a moderator, which means that Olivia and her fellow admins sometimes have their work cut out for them. She sat down with me at the Polk Library in Columbus just before Thanksgiving to talk about just what that entails, and what it’s meant for place in both the online and real worlds.
Further reading
Polk County Concerned Citizens, Facebook page
"The High Cost of Living Your Life Online," by Thor Benson, Wired, October 3, 2022.
"The Only Good Thing Left About Facebook," by Mansee Khurana, The Atlantic, April 28, 2022.