By Alan O’Kelly
You may have come across the story about the famous actress, talk show host and LGBT activist Ellen DeGeneres. For those of you who don’t know the story, Ellen while attending an American football game, sat beside former U.S President George W.Bush. For American Football aficionados out there, it was Dallas Cowboys vs Green Bay Packers. The response on social media was swift and unrelenting. Most of the anger arose from Bush's poor record on LGBTQ rights. For example, one of his key promises in the 2004 election was a constitutional change barring same-sex marriage, which came to nothing. As a prominent LGBTQ activist Ellen was criticised for not just sitting beside him, but for also clearly engaging and enjoying his company.
When the internet was first introduced, the expectation was that it would open up a world of debate and discussion where people's views and ideas would be enlightened by hearing from people whose views differed. In fact, the opposite has happened, communities have become tribal, willing to hear only from those who agree with us or whose views essentially conform to what we already think.
How can we ever have civilised conversations or enhance our knowledge when people and their individual views are being so easily dismissed?
A recent study for the independent found that more than one in 20 Britons (6 percent) say they have fallen out with or stopped speaking to a family member, and almost one in 12 (8 percent) have fallen out with a friend due to disagreement over Brexit. Regardless of which side a person is on - to truly understand the world I believe that listening to both sides of a debate is healthy, and by kicking people out of one’s social circle we are simply narrowing our worldview. Of course, this is not to say we should tolerate abhorrent views, but rather we need to reverse the trend where people become defined simply and completely by their differing views.
And if nothing else, as Ellen rightly said: "I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have. We’re all different. And I think that we’ve forgotten that that’s OK that we’re all different.”