The Power of Social Media
So we all know by now that human beings have an intrinsic need to communicate. From the early man's carvings on cave walls to our emoji filled tweets of today, we all want to share what we are thinking to someone. Anyone. And it's this need for anyone that has made the advent of social media anything but a surprise. Think about it. You have a thought that is something you can't really share with your group of friends so you put it on Twitter or Tumblr and find kindred souls who share your perception. You wake up feeling yourself one morning and post a selfie on Instagram to capture that confidence and get some compliments about how good you look. You really want to catch that speech Tracee Ellis Ross is giving but you can't fly down to LA so you watch the live stream on Facebook or catch it later on YouTube. Amazing, right?
The fundamental idea is that social media is a space for people to share their ideas, and thoughts, and then people read and understand. And plenty of good things have come out of social media such as #illridewithyou, #metoo and Stanley Hudson memes and gifs. If we were to be optimistic, and hoped for the best, social media could have been a platform where people open up their minds to the array of cultures, religions, political positions, lifestyles and thought processes in this world. That we could learn to appreciate, and if not, respect people who are different from ourselves.
But of course, that is far too idealistic. Because there is bound to be problems where people are. It is completely natural for two people to have a difference of opinion. But you guys. What's with the comment section? Why do we have wars breaking out between these keyboard warriors? Everyone is so READY to share their views and these views are getting more and more extreme. You are either completely for something or completely against something. God forbid, literally, that you are semi-agnostic. Because everything is black or white. There are no shades of grey in the world even though we are constantly told that there's 50.
Ok fine, that was a terrible pun.
So, what went wrong? Why is Jessica, whose idea of politics is that it's like running for high school president now passionately arguing that nothing has happened under the Obama administration? Why is Tim who said "Africa" when asked to name a country that starts with the alphabet A, posting a picture of starving Indian children saying we need to address malnourishment NOW?
We have these little boxes about the things around us. We hear what we want to hear, or what matches our pre-existing boxes and hold onto them. To be fair, that is how we consolidate information about the world around us. But what many of us fail to do, is to give a fair chance to a new set of information that contradicts the pre-existing information in these little boxes. We don't take a step back and re-evaluate what we know. We don't give this new set of information our time and understanding. We toss it and move on. And with the influx in sharing, retweeting and reposting, we are not checking the sources of the information that we reading. It's especially disappointing when so much of the information around us is turning into forms of propaganda. We come across something, it matches the information in the little boxes that we have regarding it and we approve of it. We don't reflect on it, we don't question the source and we don't try to pin down the angle. We mindlessly share it. It's exactly like how we greet someone along the corridor - "Hey, how are you? Good". Don't get defensive. Not many of us pause to listen how someone is actually doing when we say "How are you?". It has turned into a "Hello".
What I'm trying to say is that I am sick and tired of seeing people sticking to the little boxes that exist in their heads. I actually want to hear more about the things that oppose my current perspectives in the world because I want to learn more. I believe in the power that can be created when a group of people come together. Guys, if we can flip over cars to save a passenger stuck underneath it, we can do so much more collectively as a society. We can fight ignorance and prejudice, we can bring out the humane side that people seem to have tucked away in recent times, and we can have way more positivity in this world. And I'm hoping there's more people like me, people who want to challenge their views, people who question the things that it's in their little boxes and people who are able to argue for or against perspectives from a place of reason and logic and not shut people down. We don't see enough of these people in today's world. In today's world, where we don't have to physically around each other anymore to lend a hand or a shoulder. And I hope you will join me.
