Don’t always listen.
Imagine standing in the center of a room. People are lined up around the walls with bullhorns and they all are speaking into the bullhorns at the same time. You are hearing an outpouring of opinions, thoughts, and comments. The problem is that you may not care about what they are saying, or you may care passionately about the topic. You have no idea if their commentary is valid or if it is filled with lies. The more you try to listen, the harder it is to understand one from another. It is chaos. It is also how social media is impacting our lives.
I am amazed at the rhetoric that we are exposed to everyday on the technological online babbling we call social media. I will admit it is addicting, feeding my curiosity and need for more information (even if it is false). I struggle with knowing who or what to listen to and who to disregard. One thing I have learned is not to listen to everyone. Trying to listen to those who seek to misinform and manipulate brings frustration and confusion.
I am working on discerning who I can listen to and who I can trust. That does not mean that I only listen to those with whom I agree. That does not mean I want to restrict the rights of others to have a voice. It does mean that I must do a better job, by not being naïve or gullible, when choosing who I will believe and who I will follow.
It may mean I need to read beyond a headline, or do some fact-checking with external sources, or educate myself on how to evaluate the credibility of what I’m reading. This is hard. It is easy to get sucked into loud opinions and emotional discourse. It takes work to sort through the reason behind the voice and check the validity of what is being spewed at me.
There are a lot of voices yelling at us today. Choose to learn to listen with discernment instead of emotion and you will make a difference
Larry
Check out our latest episode on the Crossing the Line Podcast:
Charlie Meyer - New Choices
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