A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. Discovery systems become more critical as the web expands.
My bubble people are amazing,
They’re smart, kind, hard-working, generous, funny and honest. We share the same values and they make me a better person.
You probably have a bunch of awesome bubble people as well, and I think we’re both lucky to have such inspiring people in our lives, whether they’re family, friends or co-workers.
About 7-8 years ago, I wouldn’t have used the word “bubble” so often. Back then, we had no idea that people would drift so far apart from each other that opposing views would lead to a global wave of unexpected changes. Not that it hadn’t happened before, given how often the boiling frog anecdote becomes a reality.
Today, our bubbles seem to be farther and farther apart. I don’t think it’s “us versus them”, but rather us trying to understand how we can help them realise that anger, hate and violence of any kind are not going to make the world as they want it, but, instead, will make everything worse for everyone.
Our curated reality has tricked us into separating ourselves from some ugly truths, from opinions that contradict our own (because we all knew that a long, intense argument on social media would never lead to constructive conclusions).
Our mission now is to find a way to close the gap, to (re)build a shared reality that can remind us that we’re more alike than we are different.
My bubble people may be amazing, but, in order to keep the world from plunging into chaos, we’ll need to pop the bubble and others’ too. We’ll need to move in the same direction again.
In Romania, my home country, almost every generation before us has had this hurdle, whether it was war, communism and the corrupt politicians that followed. We have our own as well (the latter, to be exact), which is why we’re protesting again tonight. It’ll be my 6th protest in less than 4 years (and I missed one or two). I wish we didn’t need to do this, but we do.
Another thing I know we, the bubble people, are capable of is finding the necessary rational and emotional actions meant to bring us all aboard the same ship again. It will be a difficult challenge, a demanding one, but we can do it.
However, we need to move fast, to keep more people from getting hurt in ways we can see or imagine, and in ways we cannot.
Featured photo source: Shutterstock – Frozen soap bubble