I’m Talking. I’m Listening. I am Not Unfollowing.

This is not about politics. It is about policies. It is about issues. It is about real life, complete with issues that impact every single one of us.

Lately, I have seen these words circling on social media ad nauseam, “If you don’t like what I have to say, unfollow me.” I am guilty of saying it too. We need to stop. We should not be saying that. We should not be wishing for those who disagree to simply click a button and unfollow us.

I know many are fatigued with the level of activity, the frenzy of posts, the rapid-fire release of news, the sheer mass of information being disseminated by the media and truthfully, by everyday Americans. I know people are fatigued with the number of posts that I continue to put up on Facebook or tweets on Twitter. It is exhausting. It is exhausting for the reader and it is exhausting for those of us trying to keep up with it well enough to process, research and push out well-sourced information. But let me remind you — we did not create this news. We are merely doing our best to ensure that anyone in our network has access to digestible information as it becomes available. So yes, it is exhausting, and I understand your fatigue. But we should all be exhausted.

Yet just because it is exhausting, does not mean we should stop ourselves from reading and speaking, typing, posting, tweeting. Just because it is exhausting, or because the information is outside of our political or knowledge comfort zones, does not mean we should click the “unfollow” button. Just because it is exhausting, does not mean we should unlike that page, block that person, hide those posts, stop receiving push notifications from that media outlet. We are citizens in a democracy, and 126 millions of us voted.

All 126 million of us voted FOR something. Arguably, maybe a few simply voted against something, but the vast majority voted for something they wanted to see, something they believed in, something they understood to be a truth or a change that needed to occur. I believe that with the privilege of voting comes the responsibility of staying informed and engaged all year round, not just on the day we head to the ballot box, or in the months leading up to a major Presidential election. We must keep up with the laws that are changing, the orders that are being enacted, the memorandums that are being signed, the structures being reorganized, the rights and trade deals being altered, the elections that continue to happen. We should be knowledgeable about whether the thing(s) we voted FOR is the thing our government officials are standing up for. We should be following those who have the staff, the knowledge, or the energy to try and keep up with this, to research it and report on it as accurately as possible. We should not be unfollowing people.

Right now, we cannot afford to make our personal ‘bubble’ smaller. We cannot afford to close the doors, shutter the windows, and guard ourselves. We cannot afford to stay in our comfort zones. We need to enlarge our bubbles, to engage in more conversation, to make ourselves uncomfortable, to read even when we are done reading, to educate ourselves even when we do not care or when we are certain we know exactly how it is or what the data is. We should be expanding our bubble to include a wider array of news outlets, to make room for news sources we do not necessarily agree with or regularly consume, to listen to people whose opinions differ from ours, to engage on a level we have never engaged on.

This is not about politics. It is about policies, about issues. The decision to write, to exert a tremendous amount of energy on researching and reporting on current events has nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with policies and real, tangible issues.

Education, information, knowledge. These are powerful. They are at the bedrock of our society. Without them, we are powerless. We are uninformed. We are unable to intelligently converse, to engage in conversation that can move us forward in a more united, peaceful, and intelligent way.

Without them, we are blind (wo)men walking.

It is my hope that if you are still reading, you are taking a moment to pause and consider what your bubble looks like. Look at the different channels of engagement and think about who you get your information from, who you talk to, what you read.

I know what mine looks like. It looks like a lot of really educated, intelligent, kind-hearted people. It looks like Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. On Facebook, it is a whole lot of people and groups who mirror my views. On Twitter, it is more diverse. My news sources consist of both left and right leaning outlets, as well as a lot of middle-of-the-road media. In real life, I have liberal and conservative friends. But rather than talking, we remain silent. We get together and we do not discuss the issues, and truthfully, I am not really sure why. When I post on Facebook, it is rare that someone with alternate views ever responds. I know how the media reports from a liberal or conservative view point, but I do not know how the people closest to me really feel. We are such an incredibly divided nation right now, and that trickles down to our community. The result is silence in the face of controversy.

So now that we are here. Now that we have all taken a moment to consider your network, I hope that rather than unfollow or unfriend, or rather than share a post with the caveat attached that ‘if you don’t like this, you can unfollow me,’ you continue to read. You continue to share. You continue to follow and like and subscribe to sources you would not normally. I hope you begin to engage, to talk, to listen.

I am asking you to embrace your exhaustion, your fatigue, and to push forward in the pursuit of information and knowledge. I am asking you to grow your bubble, not deflate it. To make room for more views, even those you disagree with. I am asking you to begin the tough conversations with those in your life, face-to-face. I am asking that we all resist the urge to simply unfollow.