It happens to a lot of us in this day and age — we develop a tendency to dislike or even despise people we don’t even know based on their online identities.
Whether it’s differing political opinions, favourite sports teams or music tastes, social media is often the modern equivalent of raging fist-fight.
Having grown up going to Niagara District, I liken it to a group of punk teenagers meeting at Harvest Barn to fight at lunch.
And in the realms of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s social media groups, this behaviour seems to be more and more prevalent, and people seem to attack each other so easily.
But really, how often do we get into raging fist-fights over a differing political opinions?
For most grown adults, the answer is never.
Yet still, people of all ages hide behind screens to blast out hate towards other people they’ve likely never sat down with in person.
It’s a shame — we get generational locals insulting newcomers purely because they aren’t the same, and newcomers acting the same towards locals, basically calling them rednecks.
It’s a load of rubbish in 2019. We all have Netflix. We all talk to our phones. We’re all human. And odds are if some of the people who argue online were to sit down for a pint or a coffee together in person, some of them would end up as good friends.
There is one saving grace in all of this though, and it’s that in the marrow of just about everyone who lives in NOTL, we have one thing in common — we love our town fairly fiercely.
It’s been said before, that such a passion should bring us together, not divide us.
In 2019, why not try to keep our reputation as the friendliest town in Canada?
Rise above the social media arguments and election results, and embrace what’s here right now.
Or live the year filled with hate. It’s a free country.
The paper, however, will to look positively to the future and try to do what’s best for all residents of NOTL in 2019.
