Because the world has gotten connected by social media & the Comments section of most online news articles, people have found it all too important to be positively connected to a particular group of people, or the world at large, and in making that the ultimate quest, they have forgone individualism, independent thinking, criticism (unless it’s done behind a pseudonym online as I do — how else are you going to protect yourself nowadays from the wrath of society?), and the truth itself.

People have found it more important to be liked & wanted than to be critical & speak the truth aloud.  This used to be a trait respected & practiced by politicians, whom we used to despise for doing this, but now we emulate them in our own socio-political quests.

Don’t get me wrong — it will get you much further in life to appease people socially than to speak out against anything they have to say or stand for.  The question is whether you value that more than your own ideas & thoughts.

Many people are stuck in a social or employment situation where they can’t say that they’re atheists or even question faith/religion, or that they’re a Mets fan instead of a Yankees fan, or that they are liberal instead of conservative, or that they gay/lesbian or have a relative who is.  These people find it important for their financial livelihood and/or their social connections to uphold the social status quo & repeat the groupspeak & platform as if it were their own.  It’s the rare individual who doesn’t care if they’re liked or not — it’s usually those who were pushed outside the social circles who simply got used to it, and being liked & popular is just sour grapes.

It also leads to situations where the group may be incorrect in its facts, but refuses to acknowledge it due to fear.  There are also cases where the louder & more aggressive person will win an argument simply because of fear.  I saw a New Yorker cartoon where a Jeopardy contestant’s answer was determined to be the winning answer even though he was incorrect simply because he interrupted the correct respondent forcefully & was louder — this is happening quite a bit in reality.

I don’t know if social media will ever go away or not have the influence it exerts in society — I believe it will only get worse.  It’s just a matter of time before we have classes in grade school where kids are taught to get along by going along with the status quo — like in prison.