Politics & the Digital Dinner Party

Most of us have been to a dinner party where the discussion abruptly turns from jello mold to politics. No harm, no foul if everyone's on the same ideological page, but if not, you might see an awkward, emotional, and guarded disposition coming over guests who gathered for social reasons but now feel obligated to either share or hide their personal beliefs about civil government.

Whenever the national atmosphere is charged politically, which seems to be increasingly common nowadays, one might see a surge of ideologically-driven assertions online, in places that otherwise feature updates about vacations, weekend plans, or recent car problems. In this digital age, the web has become the primary forum for communicating about everything--the gracious host of our twenty-first century dinner parties, as it were--and it's only natural that sensitive subjects will arise.

But is there a limit?

I know more than a few families and friendships in which folks have literally stopped speaking to one another because of a political posting or email forward which apparently crossed the other's virtual line. Is it worth that? Is publically baring one's political soul worth the cost of alienating relationships or provoking anxiety? Or, do we need to grow more comfortable with weaving politics into our internet activities, to the point where even heated assertions don't bother and divide us?

I've often wondered if there should be some kind of 'digital social contract,' an understanding that some items should be confined to environments where people come for the common purpose of engaging a given subject. With the anonymity of email forwards and the selective, self-disclosure of social networking sites, should we take advantage of the opportunity to vent and/or assert our political musings via digital media, or is one better off retreating to the local watering hole with coworkers or friends to hash things out?

Since many of us have as many opinions as we do Facebook friends, where and when can one pose one's solutions to the world's problems without violating the stated or unstated mores of the digital dinner party? I don't have the answer, and I wish I did, because I'm somewhat prone to 'foot in mouth' disease, both in person and online. People like me pretty much need a manuel.

So, are email, facebook, blogging, tweeting, etc. good venues for promoting one's ideological views? Is any subject off limits? And, should we find other, more agreed upon venues for political discourse?

Oh, and John McCain in 2012!

Just kidding.