Incredible discussions are happening online in the Lovet Planners community, so much that we’re launching a new blog series titled Personal Growth & You. For the time being, this blog series will organically follow the healthy conversations and debates happening on our social media pages. Our goal with this blog series is to present perspectives you might not have considered before as you grow and progress on your own journeys.
Unless mentioned otherwise, what you’ll read in this blog series are subjective opinions but valuable based on life experiences.
It only makes sense to start with one of the pain points we see online in Facebook comments and other discussion-heavy social media sites: one-sided, factless debates.
What do we mean by that?
We’re sure you know the scenario already, but let’s go ahead and paint that picture.
You’re on your Facebook and a friend shares a news article from an unaccredited site. Your B.S. detector is on full alert so you gently approach your friend in a comment explaining how it’s not substantial on top of whatever X, Y, and Z points you make.
Instead of your friend replying thanking you for the clarification, you get a defensive reply - we’re talking claws out - that falls along the lines of well, that’s not what I heard. They might even dig themselves further in by beefing up their reply with links to (sadly) more unaccredited sites.
Sigh. This scenario we see all too much.
The defensiveness when presented new information - or information that cancels out the other - is rooted in pride. Makes sense, right? To some, responding to new information by accepting it reads in their mind as admitting that they’re wrong.
We’ve got to spin that around. Reframe it so that it actually reads as I was presented new information that went against my stance. I understand it and am changing my opinion and stance. This is a sign of my growth.
Nobody is walking around still thinking that it’s cool to snort Pixy Sticks like we did in elementary school. That’s because we changed. It was cool back then, but it’s not cool now because our opinions of it evolved.
That’s a really elementary way of putting it, but it’s true. When it comes to the bigger discussions in life, we need to normalize changing opinions when presented with new information.
By doing this, we can combat (in no particular order):
- Fascism & Injustice
- The Spread of Misinformation
- The Fall of Friendships
- Strained, Stressful Thinking
- COVID-19
Will you join us in making the world a better place by normalizing changes in opinions?
We look forward to continuing the discussion with you. Feel free to leave a comment on this post with your thoughts. For more tips, make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter at lovetplanners.com and check out our other pro-tips and planner walkthroughs at the blog section of our site! Questions or comments? Drop a line below!
