One very negative impact the age of computers is having on the younger people of society is that they seem to be able to find, via the internet, people who share many of their beliefs as far as their perceptions of society in general. Each year I find it becoming more visible all the way down to young adults in their teens.
I was shocked to hear a young gentleman speaking of why he liked a certain ideology regarding why some people are the way they are. I went on to question him in a light way so not to alarm him. Well, it just so happened that nearly all the “facts” he was talking about was information he received from fellow chatters on the internet. Unless someone is well enough read regarding World and US History, someone uninformed could be easily convinced of something that’s not true. Scary isn’t it? Too many people have the mindset that everything they read on the internet is true. Believe me, I have always been of the belief that if garbage goes into the internet, then garbage is disseminated out into the web.
What I have firmly believed all these years is that diversities of cultures and religions have helped to keep our society from veering too far to the right or too far to the left. In these times, we find more radical ideas and groups of people rushing under those banners. In my younger years, it was in extremely bad taste to bring up religion in a conversation. Religion was considered private and held a form of social taboo. I can’t begin to say how many times I have been pressured to attend a religious gathering by both clients and customers. Believe it or not, I have even lost customers and clients because they found out what church I go to as well as the political party of which I belong. Single issue thinking and single issue voting. It sounds far too childish to me to even think about it yet I must continue to be diplomatic and strive for the best with my clients and customers.
Perhaps the partisanship that is raging in Congress is but a reflection of what’s going on in the rest of the country. Too many find reasons to blackball others merely because they are not “like” them. I’ve even had associates over the years who would attempt to brand me with many different brands simply because they never took the time to get to know me. If we’re going to blackball anyone… we should start blackballing the blackballers.
