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It Feels Like Social Media Made Us Too Stupid To Have Serious Conversations.
Look, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be having conversations. In fact, I very strongly believe we need to be having more. Discourse is sorely lacking in today’s climate of outrage and tribalism. So maybe I’m being unreasonable for asking for more. It just feels like so many of the so-called conversations we’re having are performative rather than informative.
Take this conversation between Matthew McConaughey and Emmanuel Acho for Emmanuel’s show “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man”. Every question is a softball, every answer feels rehearsed (McConaughey is literally reading off a card for most of the interview yet Emmanuel still acts as if the responses are a surprise), every word carefully chosen to avoid offence and signal virtue. I’m not even denying that some good can come out of conversations like these, but I can’t help but believe it would be better if we weren’t so afraid to be real.
Maybe it’s not that we’re afraid to be real. Maybe it’s just that in the age of social media we’ve forgotten how. It feels as if we’ve lost touch with all of our emotions except fear, anger and schadenfreude. Or at least they’ve been so overstimulated by the media that they’re the only feelings…
