So this past year I have been continuing my quest to find some understanding in the midst of a bit of confusion and anger. Truth be told, and I know that is easier said than done, I’m not sure anger is part of the mix anymore..and maybe confusion isn’t either. Maybe I’m making progress after all.

In the bigger picture though, I became aware of the fact that all of us view the world though a set of lenses that are of our own making. They are determined by our past experienced, honed by our hopes and dreams and even by our failures. Those lenses are ours and just like a pair of glasses, they are one persons lenses. I could give you my glasses to read this with but I am reasonably certain that you would quickly give them back. The same is true of how I see any given event. I see it though the lenses of my life, my experiences, my fears, my dreams and my understanding of the world…it might not be an accurate picture but it is what I see. This has some impact on what we are experiencing as a country these days. Each of us has a perception not only of what is right, but also of what is wrong, and what we think others are thinking or what they believe based only on the lenses we use to look at the world.

Too often it seems that we try to simplify the world around us by thinking or believing that the solution is obvious, the answer is obvious, and wonder why it is so difficult for others to see it. Of course they do see it, just thorugh different lenses. I recently had the opportunity to spend some time with a gentleman who has experienced macular degeneration and is now, for all intents and purposes, blind. I asked him one day what if anything he could see. His “lenses” let him see a little…he saw my “white hair,” he could tell I was wearing a blue shirt but couldn't really see any other details. I assured him I was actually a six foot three, blond haired, blue eyed, greek god…my lens is a bit different I guess. The point is he saw me, or partially saw me, but not in total. How often do we too see, partially. How often do our lenses only let us see part of the story, part of the issue, part of the answer?'

So now to the anger and confusion in my search for understanding. The world we live in is more and more influenced by the digital world. Clicks have become the currency of our lives. It is through these clicks and views that commerce is done in this digital era, and this leads to much misunderstanding and confusion often resulting in anger or frustration. You see, these clicks, these page views are the lenses by which we see the world. OK, I know some of you are saying I don’t read social media, or I am not a digital person, but in reality you are. You may watch the news on tv but that too is driven by “clicks and views” or maybe you don’t watch the news but only watch television shows on select channels…those too are driven by clicks and views. If the general tenor of the viewing public is following or supporting a specific world view or more accurately, if the management of the television station is affected by a specific world view as seen in their, or their senior management’s, world view then you are only hearing or seeing one portion of the story.

Let me share with you something that I am sure many of my online colleagues have seen as well. I received an email advertisement asking me if I wanted to have a greater readership….all I needed was to re-think my headlines, or so they say. What they were talking about was what is known as “Clickbait.” “Begin your headline with, You Won’t Believe, to enhance your clicks they said. Just three words can make a difference in views. Not sure I would ever follow that advice but, I will admit to having seen a plethora of “You won’t believe” headlines in my inbox. Why? Because it works. My reason for pointing this out is that it shows just how the media, social or otherwise, works to get their message across to us. And then what? We open the message, read the article, watch the video and find ourselves needing to react, not wanting to react, needing to react. React, both positive and negative depending on our lenses.

Last fall we saw someone shot and killed not because they were a bad person, not because they were committing a crime but rather only because someone disagreed with what they said…or what they wanted to believe they said based on the lenses that the perpetrator was using. OK, in fairness it was probably based on the lenses of many people with whom the perpetrator associated in various ways, online communities, social media posts or even news outlets on public television. It was a senseless act in my opinion, Senseless because it was done to silence someone with whom the other had a disagreement of vision, a different set of lenses. But it caused much furor in the country, it hit people in different ways and caused a variety of reactions, not all in the best interests of the public.

This was a turning point for me, it made me re-look at social media, at the various blogs and news outlets I read and realize that as much as might try to be broadband…it is still the clicks that drive what I read. There were at least two sets of lenses through which we could have seen this issue, but regardless of how many lenses we use, I just cannot see any lens that would lead me to believe that someone needed to be gunned down. Maybe it is as simple as the idea that I do read opposing viewpoints, and maybe our perpetrator stayed inside the “bubble” of their likeminded cohorts, but even so taking a life, based on a different viewpoint being expressed is maybe a bridge too far for me. It was this that made me seek some clarity, some understanding, in the anger and confusion that arose.

I haven’t found an answer, yet, that can solve the whole of the dilemma that I find myself in, but I do know this…I stopped reading much of my digital content. I have dropped my social media subscriptions, I have significantly restricted what I will look at, not by who writes it but by subject matter regardless of who is writing. I don’t subscribe to the idea of policing or censoring social media…I do subscribe to, and will defend the concept of free speech. But I do want to read civil, thought provoking material that causes me to think through an issue and not be told what to think about it…I have my lenses and you have yours. But we have to be willing to accept that different views are just that, different, not right vs wrong or left vs right but just different. And it is open discussion, debated in a civil manner, that will help us find a way forward and hopefully, a way to bring down the heat and animosity in the world.

Just my view…