It’s OK to Disagree

You all (hopefully) saw Claire’s post on Thursday about disconnecting. And when you saw that, you probably thought of all the places Pure Geekery is on the web. One of our readers even made us a “clog all the pipes” meme. Well that’s mostly me. I am a big social networking fan. There’s a reason we have a shirt in our store that says “I’m from the internet, I don’t do things in real life.” I’ve been social media since I’ve been on the internet. I even do some of the things Claire doesn’t like such as posting photos of food.

Since the use of social media isn’t a controversial issue, it’s a good place for me to point out how Claire and I don’t agree on everything. In fact a lot of times we disagree.

And that’s the way we actually prefer it.

Disagreeing with people is good. Talking about your different point of views is good. You most likely won’t change someone’s opinion, but hopefully you’ll understand it. And by being forced to discuss your position, you have to think about why you believe the way you do. This is an important part of forming an opinion, and having it evolve.

This is my actual problem with social media. It allows you to curate your news to a point that it’s homogeneous. You don’t see what the other guy thinks. If you only follow MSNBC and Mother Jones, or Fox News and the Drudge Report, you only get one side of the story. You don’t get a chance to learn. You aren’t forced to think.

And that, is a disservice to everything that the internet and social media can be.