But something about Facebook brought out truly juvenile impulses…There was a bit of bad faith in smugly ridiculing these poor people. Posts tended toward selfies of rosacea-faced long-haired women in old-style prairie dresses and lots of pregnancy crowdsourcing about progesterone and wild yams. So what, if that it what they believe? Laughing at them was a shabby use of her time, but she knew part of what made Facebook — and the internet, really — addicting was simultaneously indulging your own obsessions while mocking (deriding, denouncing even) the obsessions of others from the safety of your screen. It was hard to resist, and indulging this impulse — even silently to yourself — made everything worse, made you worse, she was sure of it. … That led her to Twitter and back to Facebook, to wildly out-of-proportion, aggro throw downs between various vegan groups and carnivore groups, omnivores and fasters. Diet had apparently become the major battlefield for all the dispossessed (i.e., all of us). There was something quaintly nineteenth-century American about it all: the focus on health, the zealotry, the desire for perfection, and the hot breath of impending Armageddon. She clicked, she tapped, she followed, she liked. A few groups she joined, and always she lurked.
— Dana Spiotta, Wayward: A Novel (Knopf, July 6, 2021)
Image & Book Review from Los Angeles Times: “Dana Spiotta’s novel of midlife female rage”.
Live & Learn 
Is it supposed to be scary? Or sad? I feel both reading this…
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You felt correctly…
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Ain’t that the way of it…
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Yep
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scary how easy it is for some to go down the rabbit hole to the dark side.
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Yep. Shame that so much good and bad bad bad can result from social media.
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It’s true, we can hide behind the screen and our demons for awhile…..but karma’s a bitch ha ☺️
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truth!
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On my to-read list! Lurkers abound!
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They do!
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This book just popped up on a ‘must read’ list for me yesterday. Sounds intriguing/disturbing. There is something deeply troubling about the way people on social media hunker down in their ‘echo chambers’ and take pot shots. The older I get, the more I think history will not come down on the positive side as to what this phenomenon has done to our society as a whole. I still think the best kinda social is a good F2F gab over a nice cup of coffee, glass of wine or plate of pasta. There, I said it. 😉
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And There, I agree 100% with you.
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