Dear Gabbie:

Community Facebook groups can be great, especially when they’re used to post yard sales or giveaway items, offer assistance to neighbors, or to share fun activities going on in the area. A local Stockbridge area Facebook group often posts helpful information like that, but lately it seems like it’s been overrun with people judging others who weren’t born and raised in the area. Commenters often make derogatory remarks about area residents they assume have moved here from <gasp> Ann Arbor or other communities outside of the immediate Stockbridge area. What’s up with that?

Signed,

Other side of the tracks

Dear Tracks:

Some people only feel good about themselves if they are belittling others—whether it be people who make less money, people who make more money, or, in the case you mentioned, people who are outsiders. To some, an outsider might be someone who grew up only 20 miles away—and in all fairness, that 20 miles might be the difference between growing up in a rural area and growing up in a suburban subdivision or big city. But that doesn’t give people the right to judge others they may not even know. Heck, even those families who have streets named after them out here were newbies at some point!

Remember the saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” That’s really the best approach to take with these online posters. Ignore them! Make an effort to skim past their comments to read the really helpful ones that others post. Most importantly, try to keep yourself in check from judging others. The best way to do that is to remember another old adage, “Judging a person doesn’t define who they are; it defines who you are.” But if you find yourself bumping up the price of an item at your next yard sale when you see one of those judgy commenters coming up the driveway, well—who am I to judge!

Gabbie