For close to 20 years, hundreds of millions of people the world over living in numerous countries and speaking a variety of different languages have found themselves sharing the common space of what has become known as social media.
It goes without saying that social media has radically transformed a world that was already becoming very digitized in the early 2000s. The various platforms that are available for people to join and socialize on are more than merely just that - they put on display for the entire world to see the countless view and different opinions people have.
It is next to impossible to go onto social media these days without being bombarded with very polarized, sometimes vicious rhetoric and conversations between people whose political views are far from being in the middle.
Sometimes, I find myself reading the comments and occasionally adding a comment or two of my own. Otherwise, I try to avoid such a waste of time, energy, and headspace.
As the name implies, social media is about being social and having conversations, while showing pictures of our families and the latest vacation we took to Mexico. However, as our society becomes more divided, it has become a battleground for verbal clashes, some of which become extremely heated.
With so much going on in the world these days (in fact, the planet is facing its worst global crisis since the 1930s) it's hard not to become stressed and apprehensive about the future. It's also very difficult not to have clashes with people whose political ideologies are the opposite of our own.
With the world being a much smaller place than what it was a few decades ago, people can merely take their demonstrations and opposition to the internet, rather than leaving the comforts of their home, which has opened an entirely new frontier.
These are very trying times indeed, and it’s perfectly understandable that people, with so much on their minds, are more apt to lash out, especially if they can do so behind a computer screen. But we must strive to be civil on social media and do our best to ensure that cooler heads prevail, even in the most intense debates and discussions.
