I have a conflicted relationship with social media. On one hand, it has made it easy for me to connect with friends from around the world. Each time I befriend a new person that I may not see again, they become a Facebook friend, a new Twitter follow or someone new to stalk on Instagram. The issue is we might message each other a few times, like each other’s posts or comment the occasional “I miss you!” underneath each other’s pictures, but we never really speak again and we never really plan to see each other. They just become another voice or image that gets lost in the noise of my social networks. They’re not “real” people anymore, rather they are words on a screen. This makes it easy to filter out anyone whose opinions/perspectives we disagree with.

Info tools make getting info easy, but we get "the information we want, not necessarily the information we might need." @EthanZ #NHsmc

— Tatyana Laird (@TatyLaird) February 1, 2016

In a sense, social media has made us listen to each other less. We easily block or delete anyone who posts things we don’t want to see or don’t agree with. On one hand this is good because it is so simple to virtually walk away from someone rather than listen to what it is they have to say. On the other hand, it is limiting discourse on important topics. Instead of trying to understand each other’s perspectives and engage in a discussion that could lead to progress, we can shut someone up with a click of a button. Our timelines are filled with one-sided news and similar opinions, so we end up yelling into a void where the other side might never get to hear our argument. We need to remember that we are all humans in this strange digital landscape, and we can use these connections to really listen to each other and talk, rather than pick and choose what we want to hear. Otherwise, our social progress will be stunted.

"Our challenge is not access to information; it is the challenge of paying attention." @EthanZ #NHsmc

— Jared Barton (@jtbartonsports) February 1, 2016