There will be the usual New Year’s resolutions this year – quit smoking, drink less, exercise more, and so on.
But we need some new common resolutions for a world that is both increasingly connected, and isolating.
The expansion of technology and the imposed semi-isolation of the pandemic has meant that people lost out on some of the typical face-to-face interactions that were common in the past.
At the same time, we have the ability to reach out and communicate with one another via the mere tap of a screen, or via a hastily-recorded video.
A resolution that might be appropriate this year would be to beef up our in-person interactions, and reduce our digital ones.
Social media and the online world in general can create real connections and defray loneliness for some. But they also allow terrible behaviour to flourish. They make us more judgmental, show the worst moments of people’s lives, and reduce many human interactions to a chance to display wit – often of the cruel variety.
Since the online world isn’t going anywhere, it might be time to consider acting there like we do when we’re speaking to someone in person.
A few suggestions:
• Give strangers the benefit of the doubt, if you’ve never interacted with them before;
• Just walk away – you don’t have to comment on every stupid thing you see online, any more than you would butt into someone else’s conversation in a coffee shop;
• Block terrible people instead of letting them get to you;
• Take a deep breath before posting or recording that video. Is it worth it?
• Just log off – spend a few hours or even days every week away from social media, and see if you feel better or worse.
– M.C.