That social media friend of yours? No, you don’t know them.
That follower who reads everything you write? No.
That person who shares your ideological writings? Nopes.
That person you looked up to and reshared posts they wrote? Well, no.
That online pal who dotes on Kym and even sends her gifts? Nah.
That friend who you are now connected with over WA? Not at all.
That one who you share a post or a comment with on DM once in a while with a ‘Can you believe this?’ and who always seems to agree with your view? Sigh. No.
That online friend who turned into an offline buddy you enjoyed a round of beer with? No, again.
Everyone will, at some point, surprise, nay shock, you with their take on something that you considered such a settled issue that you hadn’t imagined there could be a contrary opinion on it. And least of all, by people you thought you knew.
As would you, at times, shock them with yours.
The thing is that not only do we not know people as well as we used to once, when we had a more relaxed and a less itinerant life in a world where we remained rooted to more or less a small radius from our place of birth and where we could spend a lot more time and bandwidth in getting to know the few people fate threw together in our geographic proximity as well as be more patient with them (given they were all we had since we lacked the plethora of choices offered by a globe-spanning social media network then), but also that the world is more polarised about issues now, and so sharp are the divisions and so aggressive and extreme the stances on those issues on all sides that a difference of opinion isn’t simply a matter of opinion but that of a difference of moral compass, of their (and our) very humanity, of the right to even hold and act on such an opinion.
The other issue is the speed (which aggravates and compounds the problem) with which our opinion can be transmitted and the length & breadth of its reach at that lightening speed, making it, to repeat, no more an opinion as much as a position carved in stone since we have now announced our stance (however hastily thought) to the world and are somehow obliged to defend, and if need be, die on that hill. It is almost like religion, something we got into by accident at birth and then spend the rest of our lives defending and identifying ourselves with. Except that at least faith was an accident we had no hand in perpetuating and that it happened once in a lifetime, right at the beginning. Our ill-thought, ill-researched, and many-a-times ill-timed opinions on a global platform are not just our own doing but also occur far more frequently, sometimes multiple times a day, making the entire shitshow even shittier.
Everything we say we THINK becomes something we, without wanting to, are entirely DEFINED by. It is like defending every single thought I’ve ever had or continue to have for the rest of my life, with no recourse to backing down because others whose thoughts align with mine won’t let me escape, nor (surprisingly so) would those who are vehemently opposed to it. It’s just tragic.
We’ve never been here. So, I don’t know where the world goes from here. Do you?
