I know social media is not the reference for what’s happening in the rest of the world, but if it can be a slight prediction of the things that are rising, we are facing a dark future. The violence, the ignorance, it is painful to see the increase.

The breath of polarization in almost all aspects, even non-political topics are being politicized, is staggering.

Highly professional produced videos are spreading conspiracy theories, while the facts and science don’t lie. They have been there forever, but the breath of the kind of people that are buying into it is stunning. Sharing those conspiracies and false, and unsubstantiated allegations almost look like a new national sports game.

For too long, for example, I have tried to point, reply and reason, but recently stopped. Some you can’t convince, (almost) conspiracy-theory-thinkers up to ‘professional grumbling’ and if you look at some of their social media time-line you’d almost want to put a bottle of wine as a prize on the first one to discover a positive tweet within their timelines. I think everybody still has to be able to share their opinion, but once it gets Ad Hominem, to me a line is crossed.

The conversation is getting (too) sour, we are living in an information war in which those who shout loudest want to be right, the space for nuance is gone. Twitter, for example, was always quite nice, cozy sometimes, but I recently see little reason anymore (other than to take a short look -for scouting international relevant developments posted by trusted sources) to log-in.

I think that’s a shame because if this threatens to make the real conversation go away, we’ve lost something.

Fortunately, there is still that real-world (twitter has never been representative, although the line between what is happening there and finding a place, in reality, is becoming creepy sometimes). In reality, however, I find more and more professionals want to engage in conversation s on change and be curious to make well-considered and carefully, responsible choices. And I still use Twitter to amplify great work done by a lot of people still trying to make the best out of it, and sometimes share the worries i have..

Social networks try to get rid of fake news, and I praise their effort, the extra challenge for them, however, is still to broaden their efforts and focus also to the administration, government as a whole, and candidates.

I never thought a couple of years ago that I would become a member of an organization like Snopes, but have recently proudly and hope-full joined them.

The normal pretty stable world order has been shuffled and dealt again, with many keeping their cards to their chest.

Even watching American news shows has become disturbing, it looks like the two most prominent ones have each dived into the most distant possible corner as if there’s no nuance anymore. Turned out the most unrealistic scripts of series on Netflix would look pale by the reality of today.

For a moment I caught myself questioning whether or not we would’ve tried to get children, in an era like this, if we would be younger.

So, is everything grime? No, it isn’t!

Good things are happening, some parts in businesses and society are getting back to basics. There is great toll and suffering, more is to come and caution is needed. On the other hand, we’re also going back to stuff that is important, the essentials. Cutting back red tape, questioning checklists, procedures, and trying to re-balance life and work back again to the things that really matter.

In a lot of places people reaching out to each other, social cohesion is actually growing, what we see on TV or on social media is only a small part of reality.

On a daily basis, you can find and see great examples of loving people taking care of each other and awesome examples of kindness. Humanity and kindness still exists out there. Share those without blinking, think twice to share evil or polarized stuff.

We will need humanity and respect, for whatever lies ahead of us.

Stay safe and remember “a small act of kindness, can be a giant leap for humanity”.

May Darwin be right…

Update June 2020: ‪‪The Sound of Silence (1965) in multiple ways describes this era because of the ‘distance’ bringin the inability to properly connect (due to COVID on one hand and the protests & administration on the other) society as a whole where also media (incl. FB,Twitter,YT) impacting all of this.‬

Garfunkel once summed up the meaning of the song “the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly internationally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other.”

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