Just Keep Scrolling...

"Digital Age"
Some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
by Melinda Young Stuart Source: Flickr

It's been a busy time on social media lately... between some political things, and some health things, and general life, I've been seeing a lot more traffic across my feeds, and from all generations. I'm not the type to doomscroll (continually take in bad news) or to gleefresh (regularly refresh your feed looking for happy things) - so I'm not always on social media. But the past few weeks folks seem a little more prolific with their commentary!

Here's the challenge: it ain't all good. By a long shot, in fact. There seems to be a trend of taking our frustrations and anger and lack of control out on... our keyboards. Decreasing are the quantity and quality of conversational dialogue and discourse; increasing are the intensity of personal attacks, meanness, hurtful memes... even something as simple as a pet food advert has inspired hundreds of comments both on and off (and WAY off!) topic, from tips to rage. It's weird!

Alas. I'll Thump out a wise lesson from a big footed cutie in a deer movie... "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all." and pair that with Jorge Luis Borges: “Don't talk unless you can improve the silence.”

I am not suggesting that we avoid conversation and discourse - quite the opposite, actually! I would love to see a time when we are more intentional about our interactions with one another, in person and online. To appreciate that silence can be a response sometimes, and that speaking truth in love is better than blurting out an emotion-laden first thought. Imagine a time when we can disagree about ideas but still respect one another... when we can come together over topics and find ways to collaborate with our unique perspectives... when we see each other not as competition but as companions in the opportunity to share our God-given gifts. Imagine if we chose to BE community, open our hearts to others' experiences, to open our ears to others' ideas, to open our souls to others' presence. Imagine if we could create a safe space for true communication, based on mutual respect and understanding.

It's not that hard, really: if we spend some time reflecting on what we want to say and why, and then find the right place for it. It means we don't presume to have all the answers ourselves, we don't get sucked into the negativity vortex. It means we come together with the people that God has put in our path that day, and be the best version of ourselves that we can be, even if that means we don't comment on every post. Sometimes, it's good to just keep scrolling... for the love of God.