As noted in distraction, we tend to breeze through our feeds at lightning speed, giving barely a second’s thought to what’s in front of us. We mindlessly double-tap and like hundreds of posts a day, so often that the true significance of the content slips away. One moment, we’re scrolling past a selfie of a friend showing off her new makeup, and the next, we’re faced with a heartbreaking video of a forest ravaged by wildfire. Doesn’t that feel a bit… off? Is it right to flick between such starkly different topics—jumping from tragic, gut-wrenching images to lighthearted, silly ones in mere moments?
I don’t think this is how human nature is meant to work. To truly learn, to really feel something, we need to slow down and dedicate ourselves fully. But social media flattens everything, putting each post into the same generic container. As a result, we lose the ability to empathize, to feel compassion, and, worst of all, we lose the capacity to tell what truly matters from what’s just a joke.