We’re divided on so many fronts these days. One of them is whether our online expressions should become immediately accountable.

When we publish something on the internet or tweet something to our followers, we immediately have an audience for those thoughts. That carries a sense of responsibility.

There are those that argue one shouldn’t concern themselves with the audience’s reaction - express the thought, act on them, see them through to their fullest extent. Life is an experiment and we need fearlessness to move society forward.

Then there are those that argue that we must read the room. We cannot act with reckless abandon, and that people with leverage have an inherent responsibility.

This isn’t a new problem, but the rise of influencer culture has magnified it and made it a mainstream issue. On one side, the most powerful person in the world is openly acting like an asshole on Twitter. On another side, people are feeling censored and attacked for their thoughts, and choosing to stay silent.

The problem I see is intelligent people ignoring nuance, stuck in simplistic and uninformed mental models. People acting childishly, not understanding the leverage of their mediums and expressions.

Maybe we’ll get to a place where we’ll be able to have decent social discourse and be able to grow together, but recognizing there are some just beginning that process. Perhaps that will just take time.