Tim Giago: Waving goodbye to one form of social media

Monday, August 12, 2019  

I have always tried not to follow the flock, but it seems that nearly everyone I know is on Facebook so I decided to see what it was all about. A little more than one year ago I joined the flock of sheep. Now I am leaving the flock.

First of all my Facebook Page became a bill board for advertisements I did not wish to see. The ads became so numerous that after a year it seems I spend most of my time erasing the ads.

It was good to see what my children and grandchildren were up to and it was good to know when so many of my friends were having birthdays, promotions and celebrations and sadly, to read about the passing of so many other friends and relatives.

I was also good to see posts by so many of the old time journalists whose work I have followed for so many years, folks like Kevin Woster and Tom Lawrence, and many others. My old journalist friend from Navajoland, Loren Tapahe, even popped up now and then.

I have a granddaughter named Quincy who is quite a creative artist and I didn’t know all of that until she posted some of her work on Facebook.

But aside from all of the good things there is also a dark side of Facebook. This platform is used too often to push extreme political points of view, hate propaganda, and untruths to the limits. I also observed a lot of racial prejudice on my Facebook page posted by whites and Indians.

I saw elements of brilliance from some of the folks who posted on my page and I got to see current photos of old friends and relatives that I would not have known because I have not seen some of them for so long.

Old friends like Avis Little Eagle and Leta Rector popped up now and then and I discovered that a couple of my nieces were very political and that my daughter Louise had a wonderful sense of humor. Posts by my twin daughters Lora and Lana were always so welcome. And my traveling daughter Teri always kept me posted about her vacations and her sister Denise turned out to be a very powerful voice for Indian Country.

I found that my old friend Marilyn Wounded Head also had a great sense of humor and a definite political bent. And it was good to see old friends like Gwen Shunatona and Karen Little Thunder still active.

Some folks were adept at keeping me up to date on tornadoes, floods and violence on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations. They often posted pictures of blizzards and huge snow drifts in their front yards. Some posted pictures of hummingbirds (Char Teters) and others pictures of beautiful flowers (Linda Hasselstrom). My very old friend Bill Walsh always had some words of wisdom to post.

And budding politicians always had angry words to describe the state of politics and of politicians on their home reservations. Others posted photos and stories about their favorite sporting events and guys like Phil Baird always had some great photos of bronc and bull riders to post.

Others were proud to keep me informed about the good things happening in their elementary, high schools and colleges. And some were kind enough to share some of the old time photos they had squirreled away for many years, photos of the old traditional Lakota men and women.

But along the way I discovered that Facebook is also very time consuming. I have even had to ask some of my employees to cool it down at work. And I found myself peeking at my Facebook during business hours and that took me away from my job.

I will miss many things on Facebook, but there are some things I will not miss. I am so busy with work and working on a book so there is never a lack of things to do in my life. There are so many good people on my Facebook page I would like to thank and I appreciate the fact that I have been allowed back into your lives after so many years, and I will continue to think about you and always value your friendships.

Contact Tim Giago at najournalist1@gmail.com