Social Media and a Lack of Discernment and Kindness

Has social media caused us to lose the ability to be kind to those we disagree with?

When did we become people who automatically assumed the people we disagree with politically are horrible people?  It’s really easy to sit behind a keyboard and condemn someone you have never met just because you hate their ideas.

Why do we do this? 

I will admit to arguing about what I believe more than I probably should have over the years.  But I’ve come to see the ugliness that permeates much of the public discourse on social media as doing more harm than good. Most of the time, we don’t want to be convinced we are wrong.  Most of us are not actually as open minded as we think we are.  And more often than not, it descends into meanness pretty quickly, especially when you are dealing with public figures.

This ties in to my thoughts on education in a big way.  We react emotionally and have not been taught to have discernment and apply logic to issues.  We read headlines instead of actually looking for facts or both sides of the story and applying logic to find the truth of the things we hear. The truth is often more complicated than what you hear from Rachel Maddow and Tucker Carlson.

We divide up into our tribes and listen to only the news outlets we see as on “our side” and refuse to acknowledge that things aren’t always exactly as we have been told and that we are being manipulated, on both sides.  Feelings take precedence over facts.  And even when the truth is told, our feeling that someone is horrible will not allow us to give that person the benefit of the doubt, because they aren’t on our “team.”

While social media has its uses, it has really caused us to act in ways we would not act if we were actually in the room with the people we disagree with. I was blessed to spend several years doing an hour a week on local radio with a person who I disagree with profoundly on politics.  It was fun. And I think we were both better for the experience.  He still pops onto my Facebook page from time to time to say some of the outrageous things he used to say on the radio, and I have to remind my friends not to take him too seriously, because while we disagree on politics, he’s still someone I consider a friend.  But I think we all need to step outside of our bubbles and realize that these people we disagree with are humans and Americans just like we are even though we have opposite views.

Perhaps if we were more kind and looked for the good in those on the other “team,” we might be able to have a conversation where we can actually see the other person’s point of view, even if we ultimately still disagree.  And maybe we can find common ground with kindness and stop all of the nonsense that leads to death threats and assassination attempts against public officials over ideas.

And if we brought back logic to our school rooms, we might be able to teach our children to take a deep breath, step beyond their emotions on a matter, spot the fallacies, and wade through the constant manipulation to find truth.

I leave you with my dear grandma’s favorite and most often quoted Bible verse, Ephesians 4:32: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.