We appear to be devolving into our reactive emotions a lot these days: venting on social media, choosing to pay attention to media outlets that regurgitate our positions back to us, all of which further attaches us to our own views in a dangerous configuration that can fuel the flames of outrage, violence, and hate. The Southern Poverty Law Center found that the number of likes and comments on hate group accounts increased by 900 percent between 2015 and 2017. It seems we are ignoring the crucial difference between speaking up for ourselves and speaking out harshly against others.
By normalizing discord in this way, we’re also setting the bar for how our children and teens interact. They might go to school thinking they can bully their peers—in person and online—because they’ve seen adults do it. Bullying of any kind has far-reaching negative implications. Cyberbullying puts both bully and victim at increased risk for depression, anxiety, suicide, and problematic behaviors directed outward (cheating, stealing, arson, etc), according to a 2014 report in Paediatrics & Child Health. A 2015 meta-analysis of studies on bullying in…
