Facebook and Other Modern Enigmas

This post caused me to hesitate, because I do not in any way want to offend my friends.  However, that is the underlying problem I have with Facebook and other public, one-way, social media.  I find it very, very difficult to communicate properly through these venues.  Invariably, I wind up either being offended or offending someone else.  Here are two examples:

Conversation 1 - Sicily
[Me] I just took a survey and I'm Renaissance Italy!  Awesome!  Since I'm traveling to Italy at the end of April, I consider this serendipity :)
[Friend 1] Sicily isn't Italy
[Me] Sicily is owned by Italy and, while autonomous, is a region of Italy
[Friend 1] Sicily isn't Italy

[Friend 2] I'm traveling to Italy also.  The tour books say Sicily is part of Italy
[Friend 1] Sicily isn't Italy

[Friend 3] Sicily is officially an autonomous region of Italy
[Me] I'm still excited about going to Sicily and I will probably still say I'm going to Italy
[Friend 1] Sicily isn't Italy

[Friend 4] This 'autonomous' region has 28% unemployment



Conversation 2 Savannah Cat
[Friend] The Savannah Cat is the largest breed of domestic cat.  It can be trained to fetch like a dog and chirps.  I want one!
[Me] What a beautiful cat!  Unfortunately, water and cats don't mix.  If they fall overboard, the claws come out and anyone trying to help them becomes so much hamburger.

[Friend] They are friendly and even tempered.  They are not vicious in any way.  This is not a dangerous breed and should not be labeled as such.  

[Me] I'm sure they're wonderful cats; no offense meant.  I have a personal experience where a cat fell in the water and a well-meaning friend tried to fish it out.  His arms looked like he'd done battle with barbed-wire by the time the cat was back on dry land.  So, while I live on a boat, no cats for me.

[Friend] They are not vicious.

This is a major reason why I keep comments to a minimum and just lurk in the background and look at pictures of kittens and puppies and other innocuous baby animals.

I learned that female elephants have two teats and to drink, the baby elephant uses his mouth, not his trunk (I suspected this, originally...)  What I did not know is that the baby elephant has to learn to get his trunk out of the way while nursing.  The optimal way is to swing it over his head.  

Adorable!  Now, I'm happy...