As an individual very proud of my upbringing and, I hope, in possession of what I believe to be a strong moral compass, I also have a penchant for good manners and fond respect for those who demonstrate the virtue of intellectual impartiality. Whilst not intrinsic human qualities, indeed very much nurture over nature, they are, I believe, core values for general social cohesion.
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Within our communities, many opportunities exist to contribute, create and participate in activities designed to generate, promote and sustain social cohesion within that community. And community can, of course, be defined by a plethora of parameters – a local neighbourhood or a wider geography, by industry sector or business, an issue to champion, by religion or culture, club, society or association – indeed any parameter that a particular community is happy to be defined by.
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And within all these opportunities, there exists, or certainly there really should exist, a measure of accountability. Within the indoor tanning community, for example, customer care, a great experience, trained and knowledgeable staff, a clean and well-maintained salon; these are all elements that demonstrate an accountability for responsible tanning.
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Over the last decade or so, social media has evolved as a wonderful platform that can potentially help pretty much any community to have a voice. And although not a betting man, I would wager that at least 97% of tanning salon operators today employ a minimum of one social media platform through which they promote their business. And certainly, some are better at it than others – but that’s a separate matter!
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Within the indoor tanning community, customer care, a great experience, trained and knowledgeable staff, a clean and well-maintained salon; these are all elements that demonstrate an accountability for responsible tanning.
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Yet, it’s not all fun at the fair. Social media has also enabled and perhaps even encouraged communities that would not ordinarily or frequently cross paths, to seek out and engage. If the intention of engagement is virtuous, of course, this presents no problem. But, unfortunately, far too many examples exist where such engagements do not play out as positive experiences on any level and a lack of accountability often shines through.
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Simple analysis demonstrates the route of an issue could be as straightforward as competitor jealousy or a disgruntled customer, and in both of these particular scenarios, whilst perhaps unwarranted, such issues can often be remedied efficiently and effectively.
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Whilst, in other more abstract scenarios of engagement, an absence of any intellectual impartiality often eliminates a willingness to exchange ideas and learn from them. I have witnessed stoic attempts on social media at intellectual engagement on diverging opinions, responded to with ignorance and derision and often fuelled by narcissistic tendencies. Even social media discourse should, in my opinion, be polite and constructive, merit reflection and where necessary, acknowledge and correct error. But this is very often not the case and one can often see people who appear out of their depth on a topic resort to insults and drivel and when called out, these keyboard warriors rarely name a factual error.
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Accountability in such instances appears to disappear behind the laptop or phone screen. When reading such encounters, I often wonder who could genuinely say they would repeat their written words face-to-face in an open meeting. No doubt, there would not be many, perhaps only one or maybe two.
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I know one person who can definitely sleep soundly at night.
