In times like these it is important to remember anyone's Facebook post is the equivalent of an individual comment during an old-fashioned conversation. In a conversation, everybody chimes in about what they've heard, what they think about what they've heard, what they've read and what they think about what they've read. Some people's comments are more likely to be accurate that other people's comments simply by the difference in personality.
We have all learned through life experience to make an internal evaluation of things we hear in conversation. The same is true of a Facebook conversation. We don't believe everything we hear. We value some opinions more than others based on experience with the person making the comment. Some comments you respond to with a smile - which can indicate dismissal or simply acknowledgment of the person if not the actual comment; some comments require your assenting or dissenting response. Some comments are so off the wall that you just look around and direct your attention another way to another conversation.
Some people, inexplicably, misunderstand benign comments and assume malicious intent; some have a hidden agenda behind every comment; some enjoy introducing controversy; but I believe that most of us simply want to share ideas with our fellow human beings. It's what people do. We understand our world through mulling various viewpoints and bits of information. Without accompanying facial expressions and bodily gestures, that communication can be clumsy and less than effective.
It is important, IMHO, that we, as mature adults, give the benefit of the doubt to others, loving them as brothers and sisters even when we disagree with what they say or when we believe that they hold ill feelings toward us for something we have said.
Sorry. Too much on this topic. It just bothers me to see strained relationships over simple miscommunications. Through social media, we are witness to more relationship stresses than we had been before the advent of this technology.
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