Uh Oh, I Think The Problem Is Us
Depeche Mode were right
My answer didn’t get a warm response.
Of course, why would it?
No one, when asking what the problem is, appreciates being told it’s them.
That it’s us.
I did a bit of travelling for work this past few weeks. There’s more coming up and, though it’s exhausting and draining, I love it.
I think I love it because it never fails to underline one very important fact…
People, no matter race, creed, or origin, are people.
Awesome.
Awful.
Adorable.
Appalling.
All of it.
Our little pocket computers (smartphones) have given us unfettered access to the entirety of human knowledge.
That’s a lot of information.
So much that we try to immediately compartmentalize it.
Sort it.
Prioritize it.
Divide it.
And oh… there’s the problem.
Part of that bottomless cup of knowledge is humans and how we see each other.
Faced with infinite variations and details we try to separate them into chunks.
You’re from that country? Then you’re this.
Your skin is that colour? Then this is who you are.
This, despite sounding evidently wrong, is useful.
It helps keep us sane.
At first.
But then it quickly creates walls between us.
We’re drowning in a shower of information that we’re addicted to but cannot possibly process without trying to simplify it.
And when we simplify it, we get things wrong.
We make assumptions.
We create stereotypes.
Until we actually talk to each other.
Then our similarities become impossible to ignore.
They becomes we.
Not always… but a lot.
Social Media is wonderful.
Ask me. It saved our family from losing everything and has provided me opportunities I never dare to dream of.
But recently, no thanks to shareholders and profits, it’s been building walls between us.
Turning genuine discourse into a shirts versus skins bloodbath.
Feeding us what we hate and fear because those two emotions are the easiest to monetize.
Here’s the kicker though…
The “social” in social media?
That’s us.
It’s what I told a room full of conference attendees recently when asked about the evils of social media and how we can fix it.
We need to fix us.
We need to teach children and adults alike that the scoreboard reality they see online isn’t entirely accurate.
The world isn’t black and white.
It’s every colour you can imagine and a few more.
People are people.
And a lot of them are great.
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