I believe that many people have trouble differentiating between fact and opinion, and social media has only exacerbated this tendency. There is an overrepresentation of people erroneously thinking they are knowledgeable about this, that, or the other!

Think of life without social media, where you only interact with people on a personal level. Your family, your friends, your neighbors, the people within your community. For most of us, that involves a much smaller circle of individuals than the one to which we have access on social media. We recognize and accept the quirks of those people. Maybe the neighbor has a habit of accepting every tall tale as fact, the barber has outrageous political views, or a cousin is a know-it-all. But there is generally a limit to our interaction with these folks.

Then we have social media. Even if we strictly limit our contact lists to people whom we personally know very well, we still are exposed to the input of numerous other people and sources via reshares, group activity, etc. Instead of occasionally interacting with a few people who think they are experts when they really are not, we are bombarded with exposure to MANY people who fit this category. The worst part is that it is extremely rare that any of these experts are willing to engage in meaningful dialogue of their opinions.

Furthermore, the ability to hide behind a keyboard, and at times an anonymous identity, has given many people the "courage" to say things that they would never say to someone face to face. In case anyone is confused, that is not the good type of courage.

So here are a few things that I think are important to consider when engaging in social media interaction:

▪︎Know the distinction between opinion and fact. I recently had a discussion with someone who didn't think Kyle Rittenhouse should have gone to the riot area and that people would not have died if he stayed home. That is his opinion, and he's entitled to it. He also told me that Kyle was not asked to go there, that he did not render any medical aid, and that his mom drove him there. Those are statements of fact that are patently false, as he would have known if he had taken the time to research whether the information he was absorbing was opinion or fact. A good way to do that would be to actually listen to the testimony himself.

▪︎Verify the accuracy of the information that you share. The other day I saw someone post a meme saying something like "False prophets: expose them all!" The meme contained pictures of many religious leaders. I can imagine some of them have proved themselves to be false prophets, but one of the pictures was a man whom I know for a fact believes that the gift of prophecy does not even exist in this day and age! I'm sorry, but you ruin your credibility when you try to call someone like that a false prophet 😆

▪︎Ask yourself, "would I say this in person?" Personally this is a hard one for me. I prefer to communicate in writing because I can think through what I'm saying and edit it as I see fit, rather than just blurting it all out! If I'm dealing with conflict, I can filter my thoughts better through writing, whereas if I speak them I'm more likely to say something I'll regret. But I recognize that written communication can provide a barrier that allows us to hurt other people without observing the effects of our actions.

▪︎Define terms. It is so common for us to project our own perspectives onto what other people say, instead of trying to understand what they meant by what they said. This results in so much misunderstanding, both in online interaction and real life. It is very helpful to first understand what someone meant and then react, rather than reacting to what you think they mean!

▪︎Learn about logical fallacies. This is a great way to help you acquire critical thinking skills, and if you want a fun challenge, see how many fallacies you can spot in the content that comes across your newsfeed.

▪︎Cost-benefit analysis. I think most of us do not think of the time spent on social media in these terms, but we really should. This is one of the reasons I'm leaving most social media. It's hard to be good stewards of our time with the temptation of mindlessly scrolling through our newsfeed at our fingertips. For people like myself, who enjoy dialogue and debate, we really need to take into consideration if we're making the best use of our time. It's tempting to try to set the world straight but the reality is it seems rare to find anyone who will actually engage in a reasonable conversation. So are we actually having a productive dialogue, or are we spending time making ourselves feel superior to everyone else instead of doing something more useful with our time?

The internet and social media has so many advantages, and has been a tool to awaken many people to truth and reality. But it can be an incredibly destructive tool if we do not use it wisely 💜