In the last few months there have been a number of high profile stories regarding powerful men and sexual harassment. As a woman in the work place, I'm pleased to see the topic coming out into the open and women becoming brave enough to speak up. Conversation and action on this topic are long overdue.
One of the stories I saw in the news had multiple video clips of Bill O'Reilly talking about how he is a big believer in "personal responsibility". While I'm not going to discuss his politics, the phrase got me to thinking about each person's own personal responsibility on social media.
Not long ago, I shared a newspaper story on social media about my beloved Kansas City Royals team and their last game of the season. Several players who were to be free agents at the end of the season were substituted out of the game at the same time and walked off the field together. It was an bittersweet moment for Kansas City baseball fans. The headline of the article I shared was "Here's the moment that Hosmer, Moose, Esky and Cain Walked Off the Field Together". Keep in mind this was just about the time the NFL/national anthem controversy was in the news. After sharing the story, I quickly received a comment from a social media friend that said "Good riddance losers". My response was something like "I'm sorry you feel this way. We have really enjoyed watching these guys play." This friend then proceed to ask about the story--he just assumed it was related to the NFL controversy. He did not read the story and went straight to political outrage.
Another social media experience for me lately was seeing a different friend post an article that was supposedly written by a conservative columnist. I read the article and it sounded a bit off to me. Two minutes of research showed that this article was not written by who it was purported to be and many of the articles assertions were misleading or false. Not wanting to start any argument, I refrained from commenting on it.
In these examples--where is the line of personal responsibility?
In my first example I explained to my friend what the article was about and included a reminder that we ALL need to always read the entire story. My friend apologized and we moved on. Was my response correct? What was my friends responsibility?
In the second story, should I have commented and set the record straight on false information that was being spread? What is the correct balance between polite discourse and correcting false information?
My point in writing about these experiences is certainly not to call out any individuals but to illustrate that ALL OF US have shared responsibilities in this day of instantaneous news. We must all try harder to take this responsibility seriously if we are to ever bridge views that divide us.
