My Facebook newsfeed and Twitter timeline have never experienced a rest with all the exchange of heated debates regarding all the hullabaloos happening here in the country and abroad. I, myself, can’t help but to share my personal point of view, when all the things I happen to read in my social media accounts are total crap (at least in my own opinion). I will not get my hands clean here. I sometimes lose my cool, and engage in some discussions.

It is both a blessing and a curse that social media is now on the rise. It is a blessing because exchange of messages or other contents is real-time and digital, interaction is more dynamic, expression of oneself is becoming very creative. But it is also a curse because it is becoming an avenue to easily spread hearsay, negativity and false information (They sometimes spread faster than bacteria!).

I will put this out right now: I respect people whose opinions are different from mine. To each his own, as what they say. And honestly, I still believe their opinions are worth hearing, and are important even if these are not aligned with my own. Opinions are very subjective, and each side has its own buckets of rightness and wrongness.

I actually don’t care if people around me have contradicting sentiments with my stance on a certain matter or in all that’s happening, but I do care on how people craft their arguments. I don’t care if others’ belief lies in the total opposite of my own belief’s spectrum, but I do care  when the things they are spreading are unfair, hoax, illogical or baseless. I don’t mind reading posts or hearing other people’s side that totally debunk my own view, but I do mind when people will tell me to shut up, when in fact they are the ones who need to close their mouth (example: posts that just pick fights, but do not contribute to the betterment of the issue). I don’t mind keeping my ears open to the standpoints voiced out by other people, but I do mind if those standpoints are just ad hominems, accusations or unfounded claims.

But I guess my feed is not truly blessed with the things I don’t mind reading or hearing, regardless if those are the things I disagree with, slightly or completely. When things get really toxic, and way out of hand, like I just can’t help but to roll my eyes for at least twenty times when I read someone’s argument with a line of thinking that I can’t fathom how that person was able to come up with that thought (Whew! Yes, that’s a run-on sentence, you may now breathe), I simply hit the unfollow button. It’s a better way of dealing with them. Do not stoop low, engage in a discussion, and in the end still not come up with a “healthy”, or at the very least, a decent talk. Does more harm than help, believe me.

But let me end this post with an advice. Whether we have the same views or not, I encourage you to MAKE A STAND on pressing issues. With all that’s happening in this country, or in the world at large, I believe it is always better to MAKE A STAND, not to pick a fight with other people, but to fight for what you believe in. MAKE A STAND, regardless if your voice is a part of the majority or the minority, especially if you know you’re doing things for the better. MAKE A STAND on the issues that can make us or break us, as a person or as a nation. But in making a stand, do not forget to listen as well to others. The development of your stand that is both logical and fair starts with knowing all sides of the story.