Confronting the Divide

do you ever push yourself to have

conversations with those who disagree

with you

how do you react when you hear someone

that has strong views that oppose yours

are you even able to be friends with

people that have different perspectives

than you

do you actually believe what you’re

saying how can you be serious

i can’t even have this conversation with

you right now

this kind of language is becoming more

and more common

what if these interactions are what

makes us as divided as we are

what if we actually listen as opposed to

argue

and try to learn about different

perspectives even if they make no sense

to you

hello my name is jackson and i’m a 16

year old american

living in luxembourg every year

i go back to the us to visit friends and

family

on my latest trip there i got my hair

cut

when talking to this barber i mentioned

that i was from california

upon saying this he became angry and

aggravated

almost yelling at me about california’s

liberal governor

and how he despised him because he’s a

hypocrite has ridiculous policies

and coveted restrictions that are too

strict

this really stood out to me as i started

asking myself questions that i’ve never

asked myself before

since when did the state you come from

cause you a problem

do i need to be more careful next time

most importantly i asked how did we get

here as a country

as a community this barbershop

experience

certainly bothered me but even worse

similar heated interactions

were happening in my own family lately

whenever i have conversations with my

grandpa who i respect and am really

close to

be it about news or current events we

would get so heated only thinking our

way is right

that the conversations would end in

anger

i would think how can he be serious how

can he believe this

i would never even try to understand

because my thinking was clouded by my

anger

so the new family rule was we wouldn’t

discuss these topics together

in hopes of avoiding conflict but this

decision of avoiding controversial

topics

didn’t sit well with me how are we

supposed to become

effective future leaders if we can’t

have intellectual

and respectful conversations with those

who disagree with us

the more i thought about this the more i

knew how vast of an issue this was

but i still didn’t know how to fix it

this year i decided to join my school

tedx club hoping to learn more about

public speaking

the club turned out to be a place where

great ideas are shared

and even more importantly these

controversial topics are discussed

and this is where i learned the

importance of being surrounded by those

who don’t always agree with you

and it has also helped me grow as a teen

and a person

in the club we have heated arguments we

agree

we disagree we value every opinion

everyone listens we can get frustrated

but we don’t get angry at one another

we remain respectful and accept that

everyone doesn’t always have the same

views

although these conversations in the club

were great i noticed

i noticed that many of my peers lacked a

diversified view on the topics

just like me we were all well informed

about our own side of the story

but we lacked an understanding of the

other side

i then asked myself if i had ever really

tried to listen to those who had

different opinions than me

have i ever had a decent conversation

with those who don’t believe in climate

change

those who don’t believe systemic racism

exist in the u.s

or those who think covet is a hoax

no i never had

why haven’t i what sources do i read

from

how do i inform myself do i look at

different sources

or always the same ones upon reflection

i realized i always looked at the same

sources when trying to inform myself

and because i looked at the same sources

with the same ideology and opinions

even if i would question myself about my

views i would do it with those who think

like me

and they would confirm my views i would

never get to see the other perspective

and that is confirmation bias

confirmation bias is the tendency to

search for

interpret or call information in a way

that supports your pre-existing beliefs

or theories

in the danger of confirmation bias is

that it makes us less inclined to engage

with information

that challenges our perspectives and

even when we do see information

that we don’t agree with it can cause us

to interpret this information

in a way that supports our existing

beliefs

now let me ask you how often do you look

for evidence that supports your views

as opposed to evidence that contradicts

your views

how often do you seek out people that

don’t share your beliefs

as young people unfortunately we spend a

lot of our time on social media

and for lots of us our biases are shaped

by what we read and see on these

platforms

a question that i ask myself while on

social media is how is that i only get

fed information

that aligns with my views i found the

answers after watching the social

dilemma

a documentary about the effect of social

media

the reason i always saw information that

aligned with my perspectives

is because these companies use

algorithms to feed you only information

that you’re likely to agree with

this is because social media platforms

earn most of their revenue and