A recent, let’s call it a debate for the sake of giving it a name, led to a few heated words on Facebook. Assumptions flew left right and centre, and I’m completely guilty of that, and I’m pretty sure that there are at least 3 people pissed off with each other.

And you know what? I’m ok with that.

Empathy

The original point of what I put up was to encourage listening in order to practice empathy. That’s something that has been encouraged heavily at my employer in order to understand our customers better. It’s also been a wonderful tool to use when working with others. It’s only recently that I’ve been able to appreciate what it can accomplish if done properly.

Sadly in this case, that point seems to have gone largely unnoticed. Which brings me to the title of this post.

Social Disengagement

A lot of people have a lot of opinions about guns. (cue divisive thoughts)

And from what I’ve seen recently, it seems to be pretty much out of control on social platforms. A lot of these platforms have furthered the problem of disengagement, because they allow throwaway comments without allowing proper engagement.

In other words; less listening, more trolling.

On the post I put up there was only ONE person who actually addressed the point I tried and ultimately failed to make. And that person actually made an awesome point, they simply asked that

if by listening does it mean that the people you are listening to are experts?

That’s a great point and one worth discussing.

And perhaps that’s something we should all ask ourselves.

Are we so much of an expert on gun control, do we know everything about the left and the right, whose data is the best, and if listening to others matters?

I dunno, maybe perhaps this is the point:

who knows if you’ll even listen to this post?