OPINION
The impact of social media on our society is a weird one.
In some ways, it makes life feel more connected, and it gives us an easy place to spend our time.
It's a place of comparison and competition sometimes.
It's a place to put up personal photos or to promote yourself in ways that, for most, feel easier than traditional media, including this newspaper.
However, the immediacy of social media also means people just want to be first, not necessarily right, on getting information out.
And, unfortunately, a lot of people are so hungry for the first bit of information they can find that they don't pause to question whether what they discovered was accurate.
I watched that play out at the Aubrey City Council meeting.
I get a copy of the agendas emailed to me prior to each meeting.
In the one for the Aug. 27 meeting was a consent agenda item related to parking.
Most of the time, the items are included in the consent agenda because they are pretty much a slam dunk.
Many are considered small business items that need to have council approval but that largely don't merit a discussion.
Often, they are unanimously approved so the council or board can move on to items that have a bit more meat to digest.
Councils and boards reserve the right to pull any individual consent item, like the Aubrey council did that Thursday evening.
Let me just say, I love when people get involved.
It makes me happy to get to know people in our communities because they consistently turn out to the meetings we cover because they care to be informed.
I also love it when someone feels passionately about a subject and they decide to turn out to have their voice heard. That's why we have the system we do.
I do often find it confusing, though, when people stir others up with inaccurate information, encouraging them to storm City Hall with pitchforks in hand.
As a journalist, I believe every governmental body needs to be accountable and transparent for their decisions.
As an observer, I cringe when people believe inaccuracies and turn misinformation into arrows that they lob at their local governments.
If you get frustrated, get involved on as regular a basis as much as you can.
If you get mad, ask about the thing that makes you angry.
Don't just take someone else's word for it.
We owe it to ourselves to know what is really happening, and who should actually be accountable.
Abigail Bardwell is the Editor & Publisher of the Post-Signal, and she serves on both the North and East Texas Press Association and the Texas Press Association boards. She can be reached at [email protected].
