Here we are, and brand new spanken year. I've been "off" twitter (as defined as no longer posting links, I will still have an account and check DMs for at least awhile) for about a week. Unfortunately Gab is filling the gap, which I don't want. So I'm going to limit posting on Gab.
Anyway, I saw some people that were wrong on the internet this morning. And it took a lot...but I let them stay wrong. Why?
Time. If I corrected every wrong on the internet, I would starve to death as it would take up 100% of my time and I wouldn't even put a dent in the wrongness. My time is valuable. It is one of the few commodities that I can invest and get a good return on. Correcting wrongness for the below reasons is not usually a good investment.
Effect: When I do correct wrongs, unfortunately we live in an age where alternative fact streams exist. Oh they aren't really facts, or more precisely really truths (you can quote facts out of context with details left off or over emphasized in such a way that what you've quoted no longer correlates to truth). When I correct people that are wrong, often they just dip into an alternative fact stream that "shows" that they are really right and I am wrong. Sometimes others are blatantly wrong, and their alternative "fact" stream fails them, they will just pivot to another topic that shows they are really on a grander scale "right" and I am still "wrong" even though I was correct. It is maddening. It is trying to nail down water to a board. If people don't want truth, they won't accept truth. The exception to the rule is dealing people that are really open...really wanting to find out what the truth is rather than having their preconceived notions validated. And these people are few and far between. And a word of caution, it is easy to be one of these people with an alternative fact stream and not wanting to seek truth but validation if you don't guard your own mind. Beware.
Peer Group: This is becoming a bigger one to me. Do I want to debate calculus with a first grader? It is often the same with debating people on the internet. The problem with politics is everyone can have an opinion and advocate for that opinion (which I have no desire to change), but in debating things that actually have a context, and that context takes years to understand, do I want to engage with someone just entering the arena and spouting their "expertise". I do if I want to waste a lot of time and go nowhere.
Relatives: Oh the ultimate peer group :) I used to debate them, and they just get mad at you. So now depending on the social media platform I just mute them. I keep in contact with relatives because they are my relatives and I love them. I can't name a one I keep in contact with that I consider a subject matter expert on the world. The same for social media friends (with some exceptions here). I have a connection to them, but again 90% of that time that connection again isn't because they display some vast knowledge of a subject I'm interested in (again here there are a few exceptions), but because of some sort of paths crossing either currently or in the past that make me want to stay connected or enhance a connection through social media. Yet some of these people are really political, and when I see them wrongspeak, especially when it is regurgitation of psyops conducted by the powers that be that wish to control them and me, it bugs me. But, I'm not going to get bogged down in the trenches this year.
Motive: It is easy to view politics or history as a fighting arena that is contested and must be won. This is the ultimate waste of time. And this is the problem of our age. Everyone is a warrior so to speak, but we are all really bad at picking the right battles to fight and the battles to avoid. Infocombat is everywhere, but I grow more and more aware that people, regardless of politics, are valuable to my God. He loves them, died for them, wants to get them to come to Him, get saved, and then get healed and walk as His children. Are my activities inline with that? Is my battle for information hegemony inline with that great mission? Or does it drive people away. It is so easy to be right on some things yet overall wrong. I need to focus on things that really and truly matter...and for me that is reflecting Jesus's love for everyone, and not engaging in things like political battles that distract from that. Is their a place for political discourse with people? Absolutely, but only in the context of an open mind on both our ends. Else, better to shut up.
Productivity: And lastly, information and politics is a vast maw that will devour your time if you let it. So don't. For me, I've got a side business I'm trying to kick off and I'm trying to provide my full time employer the best bang for the buck I can. Social media sucks away from both.
So, this morning, I can't say I hit the ground running as hard on the productivity scale as I wanted (heck I wasted about 20 minutes writing this). But I will give myself a pat on the back for seeing people "wrong" on the internet and making the deliberate choice to not answer them. Like egregiously wrong and easy to correct. I walked away instead and put my thoughts here.
It is a start to productivity. Let's see if I can keep it up.
No comments:
Post a Comment