Go Touch Grass: Our Country May Depend On It
Given the events of the last few days, I wanted to take a moment to address our current situation as a cybersecurity professional, an American, and a human being. Everyone knows that we’re living in trying times in which we’re as overtly divided as we’ve ever been - arguably since the U.S. Civil War - and the contentiousness shows no signs of abating. Violence is on the uptick. There’s a sense that we’re all sitting on a powder keg that could explode at any time. But I believe that we, as individuals, can do something about this. We can actively lower the temperature of the discourse, essentially, by being more mindful of what media we consume, how we participate in discourse, and how we spend our time. This starts with me: having less screen time, having fewer hot takes, being less willing to engage in contentious discussion - especially with strangers - and being mindful to think before re-posting that salty meme. I’m going to put the phone down and increase the quality of my personal time, cultivating the things that connect me to others, my goals, and the things that bring me happiness.
A backdrop to this is that the division and violence we’re seeing now are in part driven by ubiquitous technology and connectivity, and the media we consume has become both addictive and exploitative. As of 2023, people now spend up to 17 years of their adult lives online, with as many as a quarter experiencing some form of internet addiction1. This makes us cash cows, as news outlets, social platforms, and influencers profit from our attention, targeting not just our shopping habits but our opinions, emotions, and biases - sometimes harmlessly, sometimes insidiously. This same attention economy also enables political operatives, bot networks, and foreign actors to deepen division, harden predispositions, and erode trust in institutions and even truth itself, building on the tactics used by advertisers and employing AI as well as malicious infrastructure and techniques2. We were once protected by bulwarks against this sort of influence erected by government and industry, but such protection is no longer fashionable, and we are now left to our own judgment even as separating fact from fiction grows harder.
There is no doubt that the killing of Charlie Kirk is being exploited by influencers, advertisers, adversaries, and political operatives to get your attention. We’ve settled into familiar grooves of opinion and speculation in the aftermath, with some of us considering Kirk a martyr while others ridicule his death using Kirk’s own words3. The outsized, polarized reaction is both chicken and egg - a result of and fuel for malign influence and disinformation, all while soaking up our attention. I believe that now is the time to go and touch grass. Unplug. Go outside. Call your mom. Pet your dog. Spend time with your kids. Take your partner on a date. Turn off the phones. Turn off the TV. Reacquaint yourself with your goals, the reasons you love life, and count all the reasons why you think life is beautiful. Of course, most of us already have lives and reasons to be happy, but please take extra effort to connect with and think about them, and think about stepping back from the constant engagement. Further entrenchment and inflammation of that which divides us risks irreparable harm to the country and increases the likelihood that violence will escalate. Even if you’re not out there fighting the culture war, the non-stop barrage of contentious and violent content is causing psychological harm4. We need to step back. We’ll be happier if we do.
But this isn’t to say that we should just tune out. The America I love is one where the strength of the fabric binding us together is a direct indicator of the nation’s strength as a whole. And that takes intentionality and effort to build. That fabric has to be woven with empathy, truth, and shared purpose, not with outrage and fear. My story and my family’s story are uniquely American, built on the ideals that from many we are one, that we are interdependent, and that one person’s success is success for all. We have to believe that and live that out. I believe we have far more in common than we have reasons to be divided. I will note that Charlie Kirk would have found these statements objectionable - but that doesn’t mean we can’t find his killing utterly objectionable as well and to come together with kindness and empathy anyway. We have endured crises that have threatened the whole American experiment before. Let’s reacquaint ourselves with that story and get out of our bubbles and echo chambers. Re-read the text on the plaque of the Statue of Liberty. Re-read the Gettysburg Address. Re-read the Declaration of Independence. Remember what makes us great, even as we may struggle to live up to that. We can endure and be the City Upon a Hill, not a cesspool of our worst impulses.
It all starts with us as individuals: how we behave, our ability to stop for a moment and be thoughtful while unplugging from the media firehose, how we treat our fellow humans, and how we orient ourselves in the larger community. It’s all up to us.
Have a great weekend.