The age of social media has brought many positives but also a whole host of negatives. Originally, it was designed to bring people together from all across the world and to some extent, it has achieved that. But in allowing people from all over the world to connect, it has also allowed for division to spread.

Of course there has always been division in the world whether because of politics or competition. But before social media, we also cared about curating communities. We were close with our neighbours, we looked after our friendships, we were on a first name basis with local business owners.

But now?

Now, barely say hello to our neighbours, we don’t support local businesses only, we neglect our friendships. All of this comes from having access to the entire world at your fingertips and constantly being fed information.

Our phones have so much information stored about us and all that means is that we become a product. The notifications are designed to keep us engaged with our phones. The social media algorithms are designed to keep showing us things that we interact with so that we can look away. It’s never-ending.

Then we have the influencers. Since that has become a viable source of income, you have people whose only goal is to grow their following and increase their engagement. Lately, they don’t even care what they are talking about, they just want brands to endorse them and the only way that happens is with a high follower count.

What increases followers quickly? High-conflict topics.

Again, this has always existed, especially in the realm of politics. The difference now, is that we are being shown conflict every day and with our phones, it will usually be something that matters to us. Something that disturbs our core values and this is where the division comes.

Lately, there are so many posts that are driven towards hate. Charlie Kirk is one of the most recent examples. People either loved him or hated him. But what seemed to have been missed is that people were claiming he was spreading hate, but then they were joyous that he was assassinated. That is one of the most hateful attitudes to have – to celebrate a person dying because they were spoke their opinion. That is the level of division we have reached.

Decades ago, we fought for freedom of speech, but there is a fear now that you will be persecuted for your beliefs. All because of the division we see online. Practically every comment section of any video has conflict in it. There is no respect from person to person, instead, people finding it a place to spread their negativity.

Obviously, there are still positive things on the internet, and social media can be a useful tool, but it seems overall, the impact on humankind is more negative than positive.

So, what do we do?

It starts with you. You can make a change by not engaging with the negative comments. You can avoid participating in the conflict. You can say hi or smile to people you pass by even if they don’t reciprocate.

We are in control of our own habits, but if each of us do our part, the world has to change. It’s like the realisation if every person in the world donated a pound, we could end world hunger. Isn’t that a crazy thought? But we can’t control what other people choose to do.

I have faith though that most of us don’t want conflict. We don’t want to go down rabbit holes on the internet where we end up feeling that we have no control over the future and it’s doomed. At the end of the day, these are big businesses we are talking about and if they have no customers, they have to adapt to what suits us. If we stop interacting with the algorithm, it stops learning about us. If we shop at the local businesses, we stop supporting the big businesses who are replacing people with machines.

It might feel like one person can’t make a big difference so it’s a pointless endeavour. But then think of the butterfly effect. That a seemingly tiny change can have huge effects later on. It’s up to us to build the world we want.