Sense of meaning

By Jaime Babiera

As is the custom, we interpret things and create meaning based on our own understanding. What we typically do is examine our personal beliefs and revisit our firsthand experiences to have a clear idea of how things are going. 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa has explained it very well in her book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator. According to her, “Meaning is not something you stumble across or what someone gives you; you build it through every choice you make, the commitments you choose, the people you love, and the values you hold dear.” I’m with her on that.

However, I don’t think the same principle still applies today, when social media and the internet have become far too powerful and influential. Based on my personal observation, our perception of truth and sense of meaning nowadays depend considerably on how people react and deliberate online.

Let’s say there is a particular issue that stirs up the interest of the public and divides the general view of the community. In instances like this, most of us manage to join such a blazing discourse by dipping into the long thread of discussion on social media. Every so often, we are easily swayed by the massive influx of opposing arguments, to the extent that we forget to scrupulously and intelligently quantify the variables before we take sides and speak our minds.

I’m in no position to judge if it is wrong or not. However, allow me to remind you that in today’s internet era of user-generated content, it’s clearly not smart to just float with the stream and act as others are acting. Bear in mind that the online world in this day and age is home to numerous people with ill intentions toward others. That’s why we must maintain a sharp sense of meaning that draws from critical thinking and intellectual consciousness in order to distinguish facts from lies, truth from fallacy, and authentic news from fake news.

Is it really that important? In my opinion, yes, it is. As we have seen over the years, online threats are indeed capable of turning into actual violence that inflicts harm on one’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. With this in mind, I encourage each one of us to protect ourselves from this kind of damage. How so? Very simple. Just do the basics: interpret things based on our own terms and create impervious meaning that nothing or nobody can ever control or alter.

Email: jaime.babiera@yahoo.com / X: @jaimebabiera