People enjoy talking. Whether it be about an amazing restaurant, an awful barber, a new movie, or an old friend, human beings truly do enjoy running their mouths about anything they can.
What makes humans such magnificent creatures is that the ability to communicate, collaborate, and correlate complicated ideas and emotions; these abilities have allowed humans to thrive and develop rich cultures and advanced civilizations over the course of time.
Yet, it is that very same ability that is the unfortunate cause of a much less pleasant side of the human coin. The same mouths that speak beautiful poetry and discuss complex formulas are also more than capable of spewing out false gossip, misinterpreted “truths,” and a great deal of complete nonsense.
Thankfully, amongst a group of somewhat reasonable people, much of the social poison is filtered out and its creator disregarded. But in an unregulated, unwatched forum, this disease will, without a doubt, fester uncontrollably.
In any small town, cliques and circles are inevitable, encompassing a huge variety of people, tastes, and opinions, and these groups are bound to talk. About what? Anything to fill the dead air.
In years past, most people could have found these enclaves of opinion in coffee shops, libraries, and living rooms across the town, but with social networking and electronic communication becoming more prominent, a new breed of book club gossip has emerged: a terrifying culmination of the lowest form of nonsensical chatter and lack of reason, which bears the ominously alliterated title of Massapequa Moms.
The idea — or the intention, at least — behind this now locally infamous Facebook group was genuine and thoughtful. What mother wouldn’t want a place to see what’s happening within the bubble of their area code?
Massapequa Moms — which also includes some dads — offers place to discuss anything and everything that one could ever want to, all while behind the comforting, blue glow of a computer screen. How could such an immersive and live community ever falter?
While this type of open forum discussion worked very well for the ancient Greeks, the method was somehow lost in handing the baton to the modern mothers of Massapequa.
Even with the potential to bear fruitful discussions, this group is filled with miles of comment threads insulting everything from local eateries to school teachers, to other mothers in the group.
The sheer amount of electronic savagery that has been displayed in this group leaves many wondering how a town seemingly filled with such kind, docile child-carers could produce such a toxic group.
What it comes down to is just who in Massapequa is using this group. Are the ever-so-lovely mothers who proudly parade down Park Boulevard with their children the same Massapequa Moms that frequently barrage local businesses and community happenings?
Unfortunately, the few who do belittle their community unfortunately misrepresent the rest of the members with their poor conduct. Consciously or not, these members may feel that they are important by providing useful advice, although this advice could ultimately hurt local businesses in the long run.
Most importantly, the group provides these dark web dwellers with the one thing they truly crave — an audience. Even if no one is listening, the post will still go up, and stay up, letting its author feel, and truly believe, that she is supplying useful advice to the locale. This creates a vicious circle of self-importance versus a thriving community.
This misleading sense of importance and duty is what has fueled this group from the beginning, and what will continue to fuel it until its end, until one unlucky member of the group realizes that spending all of one’s time on a page that has become an abhorrent mixture of Craigslist and the YouTube comment section isn’t the most worthwhile of hobbies.
Maybe then will the nonsense cease. Until that fateful day, the Massapequa Moms will continue to do what they do best: nothing.
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