Why does everything have to be one side or the other? Why not ‘this,’ ‘that,’ and ‘the other thing’? In this episode, we mull over why we are conditioned to automatically like or dislike something and discuss the importance of message delivery, which is an incredibly important thing in agriculture.
Think about it this way: Which conversation would you rather join – one that is confrontational and argumentative or one that is calm and friendly? Assuming we can take this as a rhetorical question and that you didn’t opt for option A, now is the time to share a friendly reminder that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Treat people with respect and in the same manner in which you would like to be treated.
Somehow, social media has allowed a lot of these morals that we learn in preschool to go by the wayside. It’s easy to type something and click ‘send’ without thinking about how the message may be received by the other party in comparison to delivering that same message face-to-face. It’s possible to be passionate and to stand your ground without becoming a “keyboard warrior.”
Unfortunately, we’re seeing this more and more often. People are passionate about politics and things that affect their lifestyle. And it’s becoming more common in the agriculture world, too. If you’re not for something, you’re automatically against something and there’s no room for deviating from your side’s way of thinking. It’s pitting us against one another on social media, turning otherwise great opportunities for productive conversation where someone might actually learn something into days-long arguments that result in numerous subtweets and users blocking other users they may have once been friendly with and have learned something from. It’s a vicious cycle that eventually results in a highly curated list of social media friends and followers that agree with you no less than 100% of the time, completely blocking out any opportunity for new ideas and ways of thinking to enter your newsfeed.
Be the person who stops that cycle. We could all be better at being open-minded. Before chiming in with your opinion, you have to think: Is my comment going to evoke thought? Is it going to be productive? If not, maybe it’s time to listen rather than contribute to a conversation just for the sake of adding your two cents.
When it’s the right time for you to add your thoughts to a conversation, why don’t you say something that’s going to make people think? Make them want to think different things. Make them want to be more open-minded. Don’t just tell them the way you think something is. It’s not a command. It’s all about respecting each other and each other’s opinion. This is how great, productive conversations are made.
And this is the point where we step off of our soapbox and acknowledge that we can definitely be better about all of this ourselves. We accept the challenge to be more open-minded and to hold our tongue until we have something constructive to add to the conversation. Will you?
Click the link above to listen to the full episode of this week’s podcast.
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