Online
Digital Devouring
Recent activity on Facebook–that social media platform known for congeniality, reason, and unity–has once again demonstrated how much God’s people have allowed the divisive attitudes of modern society to color and contaminate their interactions. Rather than exhibiting the noble attitude of the Bereans (Acts 17:11), the ignoble traits of politics and partisanship tend to rule…
Read MoreInevitable Conflict?
The algorithms of social media encourage polarization. However, I do not mean this in some conspiratorial way. To the contrary, the programming that determines what we see on social media combines several metrics, including, but not limited to: (1) words and phrases that reflect high interest subject matter, (2) attention demonstrated by others regarding certain…
Read MoreA Plea for Civil Discourse
So. Much. Anger. No matter where you turn today, angry people seem to dominate discourse. It has become extremely difficult to find a reasonable discussion that focuses on facts, thought, reason, and balance—regardless of the subject matter. The entire temperament of society currently revolves around having a “hot take” rather than having an informed opinion. Clearly…
Read MoreSweet Talk with a Bitter Aftertaste
The coronavirus pandemic has created a bizarre combination of reactions ranging from mocking irresponsibility to mass hysteria and panic. In the early days, ignorance spread far more quickly than knowledge, and people assumed a level of safety rooted in misinformation. This quickly transformed into modern society’s best impersonation of a zombie apocalypse as normal people…
Read MoreWhat the LORD Hates
We live in a world of hate. Indeed, headlines reflect a lack of incivility in America that hearkens back to the days of fistfights in Congress, social media outlets keep inventing new rules to curb people’s zest for malice—except for instituting expectations of true human decency, and the various entertainment venues to which people formerly…
Read MoreFar Be It From Me
Job had endured the loss of his children, the loss of his wealth, and the loss of his health. In society he had endured the humiliation of going from respected statesman to social outcast. But when his friends came to see him, he found it necessary to endure their reproach, their indignation, and their accusations.…
Read MoreArguing Against Rebuke
Criticism of any kind hurts to some extent. No matter how much you love and respect the person offering criticism and how much you know that person loves and respects you, criticism—no matter how constructive—comes with a great deal of pain. Sometimes this pain is rooted in the realization that the criticism is valid, and…
Read MoreShutting Down the Argument
The rise of social media has made it possible for people to take talking down to people and talking past one another to new heights of incoherence and belligerence. (That is a fancy way of saying that people spout a lot of nonsense and provoke arguments as if it is their purpose in life.) Social…
Read MoreAssumed Perspectives
Disagreements have never been easy. Even when the other person lives a continent away and your own settings entirely control the posts you see, conflict raises the blood pressure and creates unwanted stress. The closer you are to a person, the higher the stress level. The more personal the issue, the higher the stress level.…
Read MoreOn Trolls and Other Self-Righteous Monsters
If you spend anytime online, whether on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media or simply peruse the comments on various news websites, you likely have come across that ever-present argumentative behemoth known as the internet troll. The physical separation provided by the internet and the empowering nature of computing, whether desktop or handheld, has combined…
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