Category: Social Media

In What Are You Complicit?

There are many problems and injustices in our modern world. From the threat of climate crisis to political unrest, from mass shootings to species extinction, hardly a day goes by without hearing of the latest development on some problem front.

While it is tempting to state that you are unequivocally against one problem or another, life isn’t quite that simple. While your words might say one thing, your actions may say something altogether different.

The infrastructure that is in place in our society often acts in a certain way, due to economic and political pressures. By taking part in that overall system, you are reinforcing the behavior of the system, even if it does something you disagree with.

For example, let us suppose that you are against the exploitation of agricultural laborers. The people who pick the fruits and vegetables that fill our grocery stores and restaurant pantries often work in dangerous conditions for poor wages.

You might support improving those conditions and are in favor of paying workers more. However, you might also buy the less expensive options at the grocery store, and you may not have any knowledge of where the produce comes from or how it is picked.

Your participation in the system — buying less expensive produce — reinforces the economic pressures that lead to growers paying less to people picking their crops.

This is true for just about every issue, regardless of your political affiliation. If there is something in our society that you disagree with, and yet you are part of society and contribute to it, in greater or lesser degree you are complicit in that problematic behavior.

If you drive on the freeway, you are complicit in the way neighborhoods were broken up when they were constructed. If you vote for a political candidate because you like their policies, you are complicit with any negative act that politician participates in. If you use a social media platform to keep in touch with friends and family, you are complicit in the bad behavior the company does to gain an economic advantage.

This is not to say that you are solely responsible for these bad acts, but you cannot claim complete innocence, either. By participating in a corrupt system, you are partially corrupt yourself.

Can you think of ways that you are complicit in acts and behaviors you don’t like? Can you think of things that you might do change the system or yourself?

Related questions: What are our responsibilities to others? What do you do that you shouldn’t? What beliefs do you have that might be wrong? What is the greatest problem facing humanity? What are you doing to make the world a better place?

How Do You Maintain Cultural Literacy?

In our fractured, constantly updating society, trends and fashions change at a mind-boggling rate. How do you maintain cultural literacy, and stay on top of it all?

Hundreds of years ago, very little would change from one generation to the next. Your life was probably very similar to the life lived by your parents, and their life was largely the same as their parents. And your children’s lives would look much the same as yours.

Now, however, that is not the case. Someone born in 1900, if they lived long enough, would have been alive for the first airplane flight and also the first trip to the moon.

Fifty years ago, there was no Internet, no cell phones, the number of television stations could be counted on one hand, and so on. As technology changes, our lives change as well. And the rate of change is accelerating.

Listen to a podcast where Michael and Lee discuss a related question: ‘Are we too busy?’ We also discuss a bonus question: ‘What are our responsibilities to others?’

In concrete terms, this means that there is an ever-increasing amount of cultural information to track. Older generations had to keep track of actors, known from theater, TV and movies. But now, there are also people famous just for being famous. In addition, there are celebrities that are “Internet famous” — that is, they have popular YouTube channels, are Instagram influencers, or are known for their Tik Tok dances.

The same thing is true all throughout culture. In addition to traditional authors and reporters, there are now bloggers and cable news pundits. More traditional sports figures have been joined by video gamers and esoteric competitions like marble racing. Whatever niche interest you have almost certainly has a website or wiki page with details and further information.

There are not enough hours in the day to keep up with it all.

So how, then, can you learn enough about these things that you can have a reasonable conversation about them should the need arise? Or be able to recognize the benefits that might be available to you, or understand the potential risks or challenges they might pose to society in general? In short, how do you maintain cultural literacy?

Related questions: Are we too busy? How can we maintain wonder? How do you adopt new ideas? What social media platforms do you use?

What Do You Spend Too Much Time Doing?

Sometimes, we are not the best managers of our time and attention. Is there an activity that you spend too much time doing?

If you’ve been alive for more than five minutes, you are likely aware of the feeling of a sudden realization that you just spent an hour — or more — doing something that you hadn’t planned on doing.

There are many activities that might fall into this category. Browsing social media, from Facebook to Tik Tok to Instagram, can have this effect. These software platforms, in fact, are designed to capture our attention and make us lose track of time.

Similarly, our phones have other ways to distract us, from playing electronic games to reading blog posts to watching videos.

Listen to a podcast where Michael and Lee discuss a related question: ‘What is the value of inefficiency?’ We also discuss a bonus question: ‘How can we encourage debate?’

But there are plenty of in person, physical distractions as well. For some, cleaning can be a way of avoiding other tasks. You may have had the experience of being so absorbed in a novel that you stay up reading much later than is advisable, and you might even be groggy the next day from too little sleep.

If you find yourself regularly indulging in these behaviors, is there a particular task or type of task that you are avoiding? Is there anything in common with these events?

To sum up, what do you spend too much time doing? Is there a reason why?

Related questions: What do you waste the most? Are we too busy? What would you do if you had more time? Do you have unstructured time?

 

Why Does Social Media Often Bring Out The Worst In Us?

Most social media platforms run rampant with insults, bullying, misinformation, and other unpleasant behavior. Why?

The Internet promised to revolutionize society. It provides a publishing platform to anyone who wants one. Collaboration, even among geographically distant people, becomes simple. A previously unheard of amount of information is available at our fingertips, at any time of day or night.

All these things are true — along with other benefits — but there is a dark side to the Internet as well. After more than a decade since the introduction of social media platforms, our society is more divided than any time in recent memory. People live in echo chambers of their beliefs, and emerge only to call others names. No one actually talks to people with differing viewpoints, and on the rare instances that they do, no one listens.

Listen to a podcast where Michael and Lee discuss a related question: ‘How can we encourage debate?’ We also discuss a bonus question: ‘What is the value of inefficiency?’

There are many possible reasons for this. The Internet in general, and social media outlets in particular, allow for anonymity. This shields individuals from the consequences of their speech, emboldening them to lash out. Even if your name is attached to everything you say, typing on the keyboard of a computer is different from saying the same thing to someone else’s face.

And while the Internet makes it easier to meet people with similar hobbies or interests, it also makes it easier for those with bigoted or prejudiced ideas to find like-minded individuals across the country.

These are just some of the reasons people are nasty to each other online. Can you think of others? Have there been times when you said something online you would later regret? Why do you think that is?

Why does social media often bring out the worst in us? What changes could be made to improve things?
Related questions: What do you get out of social media? What makes us comment on social media? Why do we hate? How can we encourage meaningful conversation?

Who Do You Want To Reestablish Contact With?

Of all the people you have known over your lifetime, are there people you have lost touch with that you would like to contact once again?

As social animals, the relationships we have with others are tremendously important. Part of what makes life enjoyable is the pleasure we get from the presence of other people. The company of a good friend is irreplaceable.

And yet, as the years go by, we might lose touch with one or more of these people. There are many reasons why this might happen: someone moves away. Busy lives and/or full schedules. A falling out over religion, or politics, or some other personal matter. You can probably think of others.

Listen to a podcast where Michael and Lee discuss a related question: ‘Are we too busy?’ We also discuss a bonus question: ‘What are our responsibilities to others?’

Technology is a two-edged sword when it comes to maintaining relationships.

In some ways, it is easier than ever to stay in touch. People carry phones with them everywhere. Video conferencing is ubiquitous. Sending a text message or an email is fast and easy, and messages can travel around the world in a matter of moments.

However, social media — despite the name — inhibits social interaction. If you can read a post, scroll though someone’s feed, or watch a recording, why would you need additional contact? In fact, calls are frowned upon in favor of texts, yet a text message is much less interactive than a call.

Is there someone — or multiple someones — from your life that you wish you were more frequently in touch with? Whose company you miss, but for whatever reason you are no longer in regular contact?

If a good friend, or mentor, or confidant, has died, of course, they are beyond connection. Short of that, can you pinpoint exactly why you lost touch with someone you like? And what, if anything, might you do to change that?

Related questions: Who do you miss? What do you get out of social media? What are our responsibilities to others? Are we too busy?