By Stephen Vance, Editor
For all that there is to despise about it, you have to love social media for at least one aspect – it gets people talking – err typing.
I was blissfully and willingly late to the world of social media. I looked upon the likes of Myspace and Facebook with great suspicion in the early days, and I still do.
If not for this little newspaper, I doubt I would even have a Facebook account. The Independent also has a Twitter account, though I confess, I know nothing of the Twitterverse, and I am far too verbose to try and limit my expressions to under 140 characters, so I have avoided it aside from establishing an account for The Independent that is automatically updated with whatever we put on Facebook, so it’s like Twitter doesn’t exist, and that’s fine for this old hippie.
I don’t really know what Instagram is, though I am aware that it exists, and I hear our kids talking about things like Snap Chat and Vines, but I have no idea what that is all about, nor do I care to.
But back to the one thing that even I, a social media resisting curmudgeon find appealing about the world of hash-tags and selfies – communication, discussion, debate.
For example, on my personal Facebook page this week, I posted a comment that seemed to me to be simple enough, and lacking in anything that would spur much discussion.
“Only the first meeting, but have to say, pretty impressed with this group of councillors thus far. Methinks it will be a pretty good four years,” I posted at the conclusion of Monday night’s council meeting – the first meeting of the newly elected council.
While that particular post did not generate a lengthy cyber-discussion as many seem to do (thanks in no small part to my failure to engage on follow-up comments), I found the replies that were made to be interesting for many reasons, but primarily because it demonstrates the social media relationship so well.
The first reply to my simple little Facebook post was one of enthusiasm. “Yeah! great news!!”
A simple response for a simple post, and a clear expression of joy that even for a first meeting, something went right.
The next comment was from a fellow scribe who also attended the meeting in order to write about it for his newspaper. “Must have been at different meetings. That was awful – in my view.”
Clearly my friend from the other paper was feeling less bubbly than the person who left the first reply to my post, and he also was clearly not as impressed with the new council at their first meeting as I had been.
One of the few things I like about social media is that opposing views for the most part are either embraced as part of the overall discussion, or they are shot down in flames. Either way, I see that as a win for communication.
The next comments however came from my mother-in-law and her partner in crime. “Why were you impressed?” Followed by “Yeah, what she said. Inquiring minds want to know.”
Here is a downside of social media, particularly if you earn your grocery money (or try to) by reporting on local politics and events, and have a mother-in-law that is always monitoring the pulse of Meaford’s political community – sometimes you have to explain yourself to the mother-in-law. Although a side-benefit of social media is that if you don’t have the time, the desire, or the inclination, you can just not respond at all. Which is what I did – though not intentionally. I simply forgot that the discussion had even been taking place and I moved on to focusing on other things.
I suspect that my mother-in-law and her friend assume that I didn’t respond because as a man, I have a healthy fear of mothers-in-law, and I knew better than to engage in such a potentially volatile discussion (she is far more suspect of this new council than I am). However, I knew it was a bit of a loaded question – as simple as it seemed – and no matter how I replied, a lengthy debate would have ensued, so I left the question alone.
Now that the week has come to an end, and I have a few minutes to explain myself to the mother-in-law, here’s what I will say about our new council in these very, very early days.
What I saw at the first meeting of council was hope.
The seven members of the newly elected council were engaged in the issues, they arrived at the council table having clearly read their agenda packages prior to the meeting, which was demonstrated by the quality of the questions asked by members of council throughout the meeting. The meeting was conducted in an orderly, respectful manner, and the councillors seemed to have no hesitation in sharing their views, or asking for additional information and clarification on issues being discussed.
Again, it is very early. But if first impressions are as important as we think they are, I feel confident that this group of seven councillors will represent Meaford residents well in the coming four years. Certainly there will be issues that will divide council and the community, and I don’t expect to find myself in agreement with this council on all issues, at all times, nor would I want to, but to answer the mother-in-law’s question in a few simple words – it was a good start.
This new council arrived at their first meeting prepared, engaged, and interested. The real test though will be to see how well they’re doing this time next year.
