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
advertisements
therefore their main goal is to keep
users on the
in 2020 facebook earned 98 of its
revenue
on advertisements the fact that we are
constantly being fed and from
information that we support is causing
us to be even more narrow-minded
when we then hear someone with a
different opinion or view on a topic
our brands can’t process it and we may
think their view is absurd
this is increasingly important as more
and more people are getting their
information from social media according
to a recent pew research center
report 53 percent of americans got their
news from social media
i realized this is what was happening to
me my google news feed
social media everything it all came from
the same perspective
so i decided to change my habits and
read from sources i wouldn’t normally
read from
watch different news channels all to
understand why people like my grandpa
and that barber believe what they could
believe
i can still disagree with their point of
view but at least i can try to
understand their reasoning
as opposed to putting them in a box and
perpetuating this growing polarization
but as i read from different sources i
became even more confused
different sources would constantly
contradict each other and it was hard to
know what was real or fake
what should i believe this became an
important question to me as
as as i was determined to know who or
what i could trust
as i read and watch news on issues such
as covet and immigration in the u.s
i realized the importance of
differentiating facts because some news
commentators can interpret what is
happening
and feed it to you in the way they want
to understand it
which doesn’t always reflect reality
this growing division and polarization
gave me a sense of urgency to do
something
as the future felt frightening if action
wasn’t taken
our generation needs to take action
we all of us need take action
but what can we do first of all
we need to check our own biases and be
aware of this growing polarization
and how it affects us in my research i
came across an app that helps you do
this
it’s a news app that has all the major
sources from the far left to the far
right
tracks articles you read and alerts you
for only reading on one side
so you can adjust your habits this was
especially important for me
as it made me aware of my own biases
which pushed me to broaden my
knowledge and ingest a range of views
and perspectives
broadening my sources has helped me
understand my grandpa
that barber and other people i used to
just dismiss
now that i can better understand both
sides i can find better ways to
communicate with them
whether we will be able to find common
ground i’m not sure
but at least i can try to have a decent
conversation with them without being
hostile
and if the older generation sees that us
young people
are more poised and can hold a decent
conversation with
them maybe they’ll also be open to
understanding different perspectives
it is vital that our generation takes
action that we question our biases
that we take time to verify our sources
that we realize what news commentators
say
isn’t always necessarily true and that
we understand
we are smart enough to form our own
opinions based on facts and verifiable
research
we are tomorrow’s leaders and we owe it
to ourselves
our community and the future generations
to break down this division and
polarization circle
we are smart and resilient enough to
tackle global issues
and we can only do that if we’re able to
work with those who fundamentally
disagree with us
and yes you can disagree and dislike
someone’s ideology
without hating the person so next time
you hear someone who believes and
advocates
for what you think is wrong instead of
saying
or thinking i can’t believe what you’re
saying or
how can you be serious instead
be curious and wonder why they feel so
strongly about this topic
engage to understand not to argue
then engage to bring people together to
solve problems
and work together to make the world a
better place thank you
you