The Age of Ignorance

Social media has become many people’s go to method of socialization and source of information.  That is a travesty.  I’m not sure anyone understands how great a degradation to society social media has become.

At first social media was fun!  We marveled over each others vacation photos and delighted in adorable babies and puppies.  We reconnected with old friends. We made new friends.  Social media seemed like it was the perfect companion to anyone’s life.

Then we realized how many people were suffering from depression and anxiety.  We found ourselves comparing the mundane details of our lives to the highlight reels of our friends.  We questioned whether our lives were good enough.

Social platforms became a hotspot for making money.  People were noticed who hadn’t had an outlet before.  All of a sudden, people were jockeying for attention.  The vultures began to circle.  Souls were sold.

But something else was happening all along.  Each post we made became a brick.  It became a vehicle to show other people who we were.  But the more we tried to show how unique we were, the higher the wall between the individual and the world became.  Each label we attached to ourselves pushed away another group of potential friends, or worse, current friends.

It wasn’t long until we were all built into our tiny worlds, with our social media platforms our only windows to the outside.  We thought we were so connected.  We thought we were so informed.  The stronger our presence, the more arrogant we became.

Many times, the ones spewing lies are the ones speaking the loudest.  They were naturally amplified by the social media platforms.  By this time, we were locked into our platforms, growing our own brand, shunning face to face contact.

Removing tactile contact to the ones we care about put each of us into a box.  The nice things we once took time to say to our dear ones slipped away.  They were replaced by opinions.  Now everyone wanted their opinions to be known and accommodated.

Now the labels we slapped on ourselves were so numerous, we couldn’t name them all ourselves.  We became so entrenched in the game of intolerance, throwing this opinion right here just to “get a rise” out of someone.  People were now targeting the people they now despised in order to hurt them with words.  Because it was funny.  Because it gave them a laugh.

Now we were a people easily fooled.  We had become a people who didn’t care how our words and actions affected others.  We became a society that only cared about the frivolous opinions of the individuals we’d become.  Community died in cities everywhere.  Now everyone was out to get us, out for themselves.

The misinformation was easily spread.  People had stopped reading the reputable publications.  They replaced them with some guy who sounded like he knew what he was talking about.  Some beautiful woman who couldn’t possibly be lying.  A group claiming they cared when actually they exploited their members.  These people couldn’t be wrong when they said that the media was lying, could they?

But now everything was all jumbled.  Now it was impossible to tell a good source from a bad one, since prominent people seemed to discount anything the mainstream media reported.  It was a shame, because they missed a lot of things they really should have been paying attention to.

You see, the vast majority of reporters became journalists because they had a moral obligation to the truth.  They took it upon themselves to look into situations that government agencies couldn’t touch.  They put themselves in harms way to give people a view from the inside.  They attached their integrity to the words they printed.

Books had long been joked about.  People had long taken pride in the fact that they didn’t have the attention span to read a full book.  Ignorance became the norm and abusive language towards one another became common place.  The media had been the only last surviving chance at the truth, but we assaulted that too.

Now these platforms were filled with anger and filth.  Anyone who tried to say something nice was laughed at and called a clown or a commie liberal, as if that had anything to do with kindness!  People laughed at the pain of others, as if this sort of language was ever okay to use!  How dare anyone treat another soul with such disregard?  It breaks my heart.

We have now come to a very grave point in history.  We have come to a point where mistrusting and mistreating our neighbors is socially acceptable.  We punish, judge, and laugh at them when we could help them to the benefit of us all.

We have severed ties between long time friends and family because we were horrified by their opinions, just as they were horrified by ours.  It became Us and Them.  Only, now that we had so many opinions and labels, we weren’t really sure who Us was.  We realized that Us had become just the one.

That in and of itself should horrify anyone, but that isn’t even the worst side effect of what we’ve become.  The worst thing is that the most vulnerable have become targets for those that would hurt them.  It’s hard to tell the difference these days between a wolf and a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  The children and the elderly are worse off than ever.

They feel like no one cares.  The thing is, no one does care anymore.  They only care about themselves.  They have forgotten what it meant to be part of a thriving community.  They forgot how human contact felt.  They became afraid of one another, and for good reason:  We now bully anyone who doesn’t agree with our opinion.

What kind of world is that? Is that really how we want to live? Now that we are pigeonholed by the algorithms, can we even say that we choose our opinions? Or are they just fed to us? Do we really believe the things we say? Or do we repeat what we've heard others say?

It is time to break free from the social platforms that we are addicted to. Lives are wasted away by watching 30-second soundbites for hours on end. Every moment we are distracted, we lose more rights, more nefarious deeds are done, decisions are made for us in rooms we have no access to.

It is a very scary time to be alive. This fear is only amplified by the social platforms we use. Now that everyone is airing their opinions, we have become fearful of putting ourselves out there. Now we have to question what opinions hide behind that face in front of us. Trust is lost.

It isn't too late. We can delete our social media and put down our phones. We can look each other in the eye and learn to get to know one another without all of those opnions. What good is an opinion anyway? What is good for you may be harmful to someone else. Is it really fair to judge others by your personal experience?

I challenge you to break away from social media. Start by deleting the apps off your phone. Find something else to occupy your time. You might be surprised at how much time you have when you put your phone down. Experience life!