As citizens and friends, we can strive to stay above the political fray and to be the better person. Let’s commit to expressing kindness in all our communications, whether we agree with others or not.
An MIT study revealed that misinformation spreads six times faster than truth. The study, quoted in the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, highlights the danger posed by seeing something online and reflexively reposting it, or by hearing something that sounds true and repeating it.
The risk of spreading misinformation is grave, yet the risk of crushing goodwill is just as serious. Family relationships have been ravaged and friendships have been devastated by people posting on social media or family WhatsApp groups without thinking of how the message will be received. Is it worth losing someone you love because you want to make a point online?
Before sending or posting a message, pause. Check your facts. Check your bias. Remember that living, breathing fellow human beings are going to read your words through their own complex filters of feeling and belief. Then ask yourself the questions I raised in a previous Kindness Challenge: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?
After pausing, you may find that you don’t need to publish that post after all. As Shakespeare wrote in King Henry the Fourth, “Discretion is the better part of valor.”