Growing weary of social media disconnect

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Like many other consumers, I, too, have grown weary of social media’s physical (and often identity) disconnect through which the worst verbal violence can be and too often are readily made without consequence for the aggressor.

But, having said that, social media like Facebook have nonetheless enabled far greater information freedom than that allowed by what had been a rigidly gatekept news and information virtual monopoly held by the pre-2000 electronic and print mainstream news media.

Besides the ‘Black Lives Matter’ and George Floyd protests, I seriously doubt that Greta Thunberg’s formidable pre-pandemic climate change movement, for example, would’ve been able to regularly form on such a congruently colossal scale, if not in large part for the widely accessible posting and messaging systems of Facebook.

Yet, contrary to conservatives’ adamant proclamations, I’ve found that social media silences progressive voices as much as, if not more than, conservative opinions. As but one example, my own Facebook account (which received relatively very few dislikes) was “disabled” without any explanation.

FRANK STERLE JR