scijessreads

Welcome to a more wandering, philosophical post. These don’t happen very often, but sometimes the jumble of words and thoughts in my brain need an outlet. And I have this space (and I type faster than I handwrite these days).

Maybe it has been my little corner of the internet, but I have a feeling this happens in all spaces to some degree, where we (as people in general) seem to be taking snippets of information and running with them as if they tell an entire story.

Very rarely does a brief clip, a short quote, or a vague article tell the whole story.

But we take what we see and hear and build out own story and opinions around it, cast out our judgments, and cry into the void as if we know everything. As if noticing one tiny thread is enough to see the whole cloth.

And then, when the whole story comes out later, we often have to reconcile our quick responses with what is often a more detailed, nuanced, and deeper situation than we allowed ourselves to see.

It is tempting, to see the new and shiny and outrageous as something that needs to be immediately commented on. To a degree, we are in a time of “me first!” As if we will have FOMO for not jumping on a bandwagon the second it turns around our corner.

In this grasp for immediacy, we can often lose the fact that no story is simple. That many stories actually end up with us having to hold multiple truths in our hearts and our minds at the same time. We are enraged with the situation, yet empathetic with those affected. We can see that it is not as easy as saying “stop that,” because there are tendrils of repercussions that we cannot always see if we are myopically focused only on what is in front of us.

And in this same vein, I find that people are less likely to hold on to multiple threads at once. We forget that just because we champion one cause, does not mean that there are not others out there that are also worthy. But sometimes one of them needs our focus more than others. And sometimes it is a matter of putting on our own oxygen masks first before helping others.

There are some mixed metaphors in here, but hopefully the meaning comes through.

In an age where media is constant, where there are more ways to access information than ever, we are losing the ability to take a moment and breathe. To collect all of the information before making a statement. While our emotions are valid, and our freedoms to share them (at least in the U.S.) are relatively open, it is always good to take a moment and ask yourself if what you are sharing is benefitting the situation, making it worse, or making it about you? Not all of our opinions need to be broadcast (and I know I am speaking as someone with an internet platform who likes to share).

And when we do share our thoughts, we have to remember that everyone else is now free to comment on them. We don’t have to accept harassment and bullying (boundaries are important). Maybe at the end of this, my final thought is more of a reminder: take a moment to dig deeper and understand where something/someone is coming from, before jumping in a commenting just for the sake of saying something.