An important new Atlantic essay by Jonathan Haidt says social media’s turned us (who, me?) into partisan performers who don’t even try to connect across political and other divides with those who don't already share our biases. Most of us, anyway, from "dedicated conservatives" to "progressive activists" and all points in between.
So what do we do about it? He suggests getting involved with organizations like those composing Bridge Alliance, "committed to revitalizing America through civic engagement, governance and policymaking, and campaign and election processes."
Good. But it amused me when I went to their website to sign up and they instantly suggested I share my pro-civic intentions on social media. Another performance.
On further reflection, I recognize the importance of not giving up on social media as potential bridges rather than insulating walls and bubbles and echo-chambers. So I'm not deleting my Twitter account today (Elon Musk's attempted buyout notwithstanding) or my Instagram, or even my Facebook (which I really don't use, don't take it personally when I ignore your "friend" request). I'm not going to stop using social media, but Haidt's inspired me to do it more mindfully.
Before each tweet I'll now ask myself: Am I just performing for my choir? Or am I trying to connect, to understand and bridge differences, to articulate my own positions constructively, to share my own actual experience and invite those with a different experience to reciprocate? Leana Wen is right, in the epilog we close today in Bioethics, "there's a need both for loud voices that push at the boundaries and for those who strive for inclusivity and building bridges."
Most of all: I hereby resolve never to argue with a stranger on the internet.
More on the indispensable check of experience today in that delightful Little Book of Humanism.
“We must constantly check the results of our reasoning process against the facts, and see if they fit. If they don’t fit, we must respect the facts, and conclude that our reasoning was mistaken." J.B.S. Haldane
"There is no immemorial tradition, no revelation, no authority, no privileged knowledge (first principles, intuitions, axioms) which is beyond question . . . There is only experience to be interpreted in the light of further experience, the sole source of all standards of reason and value, for ever open to question. This radical assumption is itself, of course, open to question, and stands only in so far as it is upheld by experience." Harold Blackham
"It might be said that ‘distrust thy father and mother’ is the first commandment with promise. It should be a part of education to explain to children as soon as they are old enough to understand, when it is reasonable, and when it is not, to accept what they are told on authority." John Bagnell Bury
“Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked–as I am surprisingly often–why I bother to get up in the mornings. To put it the other way round, isn’t it sad to go to your grave without wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be part of it?" Richard Dawkins
Somewhere over the rainbow...
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