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Where has all the class gone?

by Matthew Payton
8/23/2017

Gone is the era where gossip was restricted to the fence between neighbors, break rooms among coworkers, and alongside lockers between classes. These days almost everyone uses Social Media in one form or another. These platforms give us the ability to easily communicate with family, friends, co-workers, and our respective communities. However, these resources have also evolved into an environment where many of us feel free to make statements that would be considered completely unacceptable under any other circumstances, often crossing the boundary into blatant hostility.

Mainstream media has habitually reinforced this behavior, by continually broadcasting messages which teach people all the wrong ways to speak with one another. According to Natalie Wolchover of Scientific American, communication is the process of taking the perspective of another individual, attempt to understand it, and responding. To further complicate matters, the text based communication that is so prevalent on Social Media leaves a lot to be desired when compared to a face to face dialogue.

As citizens of Holliston, and the United States should we not all do our part to cut down on the anger and hatred that are becoming the norm? Finding solutions which consider the perspective of opposing ideologies is never easy, however, perhaps taking a moment to reintroduce some class into our day to day communications with our neighbors and countrymen online is a solid first step.

Comments (1)

Agreed, Matt!!!!

Mary Greendale | 2017-08-23 06:49:34