Do You Not See it?

Here we are in 2020. Pandemic. Presidential politics. Many other top-of-mind issues on which one can take sides. And almost everyone does. Many moderately-opinionated individuals, on social media, and elsewhere, are calling for civility and kindness to re-emerge from the ashes of hatred and "my-way-or- the-highway" belief systems. 

How have we come to this point where nobody is allowed to believe what they want without being told to shut up and change their mind? As someone who has lived almost seven decades, and who has worked in the communication business all of my adult life. It's clear to me where the acrimony originates. 

It's our wonderful, new, universal and portable friend--social media. 

Until the advent of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all the other self-expression vehicles, many voices and expressions of position, no matter how valuable or unworthy, were not heard for lack of a platform. Additionally, the tools of the new reality in mass-communication provide the opportunity to put out anything, no matter how outrageous, without fear of physical confrontation or contradiction. 

At a public or private gathering, large or small, in the days before social "meania", one had to be prepared to back up an opinion with facts, or fists. But more often, decent people would listen to the opinions of other decent people and the two sides would agree to exist on some formulated middle ground. They might agree to disagree. They might say..."Oh, I never thought of that." Or, "I see what you mean". Can you imagine that in the current climate of "my opinion is gospel" on Twitter? 

Almost everyone who knows how to work a cellphone shares thoughts instantaneously, whether well-thought-out or not, for world-wide consumption...they hope. Sometimes, if the thought is outrageous or edgy enough, the thing will go viral. Isn't that the goal of most tweets? If that happens, the world tends to get a little dumber as the population consumes the statement as if it were fact...when it's really just click-bait or wildly-cogitated manure. Those who agree, nod in agreement. Those who disagree, start fuming and retaliate...usually with something even more worthless. 

Our only hope in all of this mess is that the populace becomes wise to what's happening. People of all races, political beliefs, religions, and social strata must raise their level of media literacy. In teaching Intro to Mass Comm at Southwestern Illinois College, a large part of our course is intended to help students understand how to evaluate all media as to their origins, intentions and veracity. In other words...Who is speaking?, How?, Why?, And is what they are saying truthful and valuable? Plus, What is the financial motivation for the message? Always follow the money!  

Hopefully, students come out of the course with a much higher understanding of media messages...i.e. a greater level of media literacy. This, hopefully, is how most everyone will someday come to a sensible view of incoming messages with which they are being bombarded. It's the only way to separate the diamonds from the coal...the champagne from the grape juice.  

Make no mistake, social media is the game-changer that we are all being forced to evaluate in 2020. When political candidates at the highest level find more value in communicating through social media and bypassing the gatekeepers in the traditional media, well, Houston, we have a problem. To be fair, traditional journalism has its problems too. But who, when they have an instrument of message mass-distribution in their hand, wants to deal with that filter? Right? 

I'm hopeful that more serious scrutiny of all messages, incoming and outgoing, will become the norm for us all to come to a more acceptable level of civility in the public discourse. 

Like it or not, our interaction, with social media leading the way, now includes everyone as a mass-communicator. We need to remember that not everyone is a competent and worthy influencer of opinion. But everyone is entitled to express one.   

It's a different world. It's our job now to learn to live in it.