Status Updates on Facebook have a whole new tone to them these days. While usually a barometer as to how hungover/ready for happy hour a person is, in the past week these innocuous little descriptors have been replaced by some heavy war-petting, Israel style. I'm no stranger to politically-tinged updates myself. I've been known to throw some perhaps obnoxiously strong opinions next to my name, but I hope they aren't as blatantly inhumane as some of the taglines that I've seen listed next to my Facebook "friend's" names:
John Doe is GO ISRAEL GO! is proud of Israel! is KILL THEM ALL!
Often written all in caps, each of these updates is followed by a barrage of commentary, both in support and derision of the original sentiment.
Personally, it has turned into a bit of a conundrum. My first instinct was to delete the people making these statements from my friend list as a way to scourge my social networking of what I consider to be offensive slurs against a group of people, the Palestinians. But then, as I was about to get rid of the first culprit, I wondered if by doing so I would be ending a potentially important conversation. Maybe I'm taking this all too seriously. Maybe it's only freaking Facebook. But (forgive the Carrie Bradshaw-esque tone) I have to wonder, if this is our new way of communicating, how much influence does a Status Update have on our culture?