Flawed communication

For much of my childhood, I was an outcast. And having no siblings and coming from a divorced family, I'm used to isolation. Because of that, I've always lived my life on my terms and adjusting to other people's interests or social tendencies takes a little time. And when someone only knows someone through social media, let' be real, they can only know them to a point. I am learning more and more that social media can allow people to be acquaintances, but they can rarely, if ever, be real friends if they keep the relationship exclusive to social media.

I bring this up because I find it interesting what I've been getting from other people in terms of their opinion of me. I don't care as much as I used to, but I have a problem if people are insulting me without my knowledge. Within the span of two hours, one person who I have met once in my life but have communicated with for five years told me how much I was loved. Then another person who knows me only through Facebook accused me of being increasingly rude and negative.

I know I'm putting myself on the line by listing those two words. So I feel the need to say a couple of things. I think some people confuse certain things. For instance, what some call positive, some may perceive as delusional. On a parallel level, what some call negative, another may call honest. I'm honest. And when it comes to the topic that was being discussed, the New York Jets, it has been a lot of negativity over the 25 years that I have been rooting for them. And this past season was a tremendous disappointment that resulted in the clueless general manager and the talented head coach losing their jobs. Apparently, I was supposed to be positive by their standards, but delusional by my standards, and talk about how great things were and how they're definitely going to be great next season. Well, you know what, as many times as I have been heartbroken, I'm not going to get myself all worked up thinking that every year is the year that they will be great. And if I offer an alternative viewpoint or ask a question requesting that a person explain their viewpoint,  that is not being rude. That is called engaging someone in conversation. And if they get defensive and accuse me of being rude as a result, they are the one with the problem.

It is comforting to know that they people who actually do know me from more than social media do like me. Those are the people that are worth spending my time with. Even though social media has made communication far more convenient, it is apparently making the process of knowing people far more difficult. And that's really unfortunate.