Nuance is dead. A handful of people in this generation couldn’t separate SNL’s Weekend Update from the actual news. Plenty of news mediums that people consume start with TikTok and end with YouTube shorts. How are all of these young, educated adults trapped in such a cloud of bogged-down media and glorified “Too Long; Didn’t Reads” that come across their “For You Page.” It seems like some people don’t care about what’s going on in the world, let alone developing their own opinion.
Most people are going to blame TikTok (which is diluting the news we consume and limiting watchers’ scopes to a short videos) or other social media platforms, which enable conformity and kill many original thoughts before they’re even bred. The thing is, though, they aren’t wrong: using TikTok as a primary news source and having social media so intertwined with young people’s lives is destroying original thought. But true indifference, the real death of nuance and critical thought, comes from cancel culture and the fear of even thinking the wrong thing and being excommunicated from whatever space deems your opinion unworthy.
It doesn’t really matter what your political ideology is: the space you’re in dictates what your thoughts should be. We don’t let people form their own opinions if it differs from the accepted mainstream. This phenomenon isn’t isolated either; this is happening everywhere. It’s happening in your academic circle and your social group; it’s happening at home and at work, and it’s dangerous. When everyone’s information is coming from the same place, and when that information is so cut and dry that people can’t even come up with an original opinion on it, there becomes a clear right and wrong when engaging in any kind of political and social discourse. However, everything in real life isn’t so black and white.
When teenagers begin their journey into engaging in the civic process, many have no idea where to start. In my experience, many modern young adults are just reflections of the hollowed-out opinions and perceptions of their parents. Of course, taking some inspiration from your parents isn’t inherently bad, and it’s not anti-intellectual either. Everyone is a product of their own unique circumstance and experiences. It’s only started to become an issue as we’ve entered this new paradigm shift where the media that everyone consumes becomes so tailor-fit to what you want to hear.
When we start giving 12-year-olds access to TikTok, they are frequently exposed to one-sided political extremism, and the culture surrounding that extremism tells them that if they have any other opinion, they are a horrible person and will be “canceled” from whatever community they’re in. Many times, they’re just going to start embracing said extremism and not even look for other opinions. And how can we blame them? If my introduction to politics, especially social politics, was met with such consuming rigidity and force, I would be a completely different person. We need to combat this sheltered perception of real-life issues with inclusive dialogue, and we need to teach people that the process of learning and coming across new information and ideas is an essential component of growth.
People need to abandon their black-and-white mindsets and embrace the gray — challenging everything they hear. Do your own research, fact check, pick up a book, watch the news, talk about things with your friends and family and have those uncomfortable conversations. I promise whoever reads this that once you do those things, and once you realize that every thought and opinion you have is worthy of at least some healthy discourse, you can apply your own originality and uniqueness to everything you do, just add some nuance.
Daniel Macomber can be reached at [email protected].
