Land of the Free (Terms and Conditions Apply)
We are in an era of quick news hits. Which is why this article is a two minute read. Headlines sell the story, and are mixed with the soundbites of what we want people to hear.
We enjoy the ability to understand something in the limited time that we have to observe an opinion, but miss out on understanding what biases comprise it.
It’s a feel good world, and its making us hate each other.
We are giving each other permission to huddle closer around our tribes, instead of recognizing that we are stronger because of our differences.
We can’t trust press releases from the White House. We can’t trust the headlines on CNN. We cannot trust FOX or MSNBC. You cannot trust that this article is written without bias. I hold bias. We all do.
How boring it would be if we were all the same.
We are being categorized and sorted by algorithms and audience engagement numbers. Even by this article, Medium will use your behavior to show you personalized content, and further define the boundaries of our individual echo chambers.
We are putting up walls around our information stream with the help of hundreds and thousands of algorithms that claims to know what we want. Brick by informational brick we are isolating ourselves on the web; A platform that was sold as one of the greatest ways we could be brought together.
Coming together isn’t the universal application of a single standard, it is the recognition that there will always be someone better to whom we can aspire, we will hold different opinions, we will argue and disagree often.
Forming opinions takes time. Developing ideas takes effort. If we do not take that time, and expend that effort, we will continue to crumble.
We are in the land of the free but there are few, if any, things we can do that are not taxed, regulated, or just illegal.
We spend a lot of time celebrating freedom.
The choices we make today will determine if that freedom will last.
