Why do you care about the Olympic opening ceremony?

I don’t have an opinion on the Olympics opening ceremony.  I didn’t watch it, but it seems a lot of you did. Based on my social media feeds across various platforms, many of you have opinions on it. Many of those – like most issues that reach public salience quickly – are quite strong.

Why? 

Seriously, why do you care?

Before you continue reading, I’m going to take the unusual step and ask you to stop and ponder the above question. Take a few moments and articulate a specific answer to yourself as to why you would take the time to form a strong opinion on an artistic performance on another continent. Why would you then need to express that opinion in sharp and stark tones. For bonus points, then ask yourself why it is or would be worth arguing with strangers or friends and family on the internet about it.

Why? Why? Why?

This current version of my political involvement began almost two decades ago, under an anonymous name on a relatively obscure blog dedicated to state politics.  Often I played the role of a troll or a devil’s advocate.  I had no agenda, nor purpose for my participation. I was bored and blowing off steam. I also had way too much time on my hands.

I found very quickly that I could engage most of the regular participants on that blog on almost any topic. It didn’t take long to figure out what buttons to push to elicit a response, whether it be from a specific individual or the community at large.  

I did it for free. Now days, this is called “engagement,” and it is highly monetizable. Anyone that can get you to click, read, comment and/or share can make a good living doing nothing but trolling the internet. All they need from you is to plant a small seed to make you think you care.

What is amazing about the internet is that you can develop a following of people very quickly. It helps if you’re entertaining. Entertainment comes in many forms. Often, those being entertained think they’re being educated, or – even better – solving problems by educating others.  

Those who insist on watching only one cable “news” network as the source of their information are often the easiest to bait. They’ve already made it clear without realizing it they don’t want to be informed, but instead, want to be affirmed.  

People who actually want to be informed have to listen to their critics and check sources with which they often disagree. Those who only want to see their own opinions repeated back to them are pure engagement bait.

I spent almost three years sharing my opinions anonymously before unmasking the alias and attaching my real name. I then realized I had more of a platform and audience than I had realized. There were “important people” paying attention to my thoughts and words.  

There was an opportunity there to do more than have opinions, but actually help solve many of the problems I was complaining about. In order to do that, I had to change a few things.

I had to quit having and sharing opinions on everything. I did my best to focus the majority of my time on things that actually mattered.  

I also had to understand that entertaining the masses isn’t the same as educating and influencing. I, intentionally, became more boring.  

Grading on social media metrics, I became worth a lot less. Over the years, I’ve helped get a few things done. For me and my purposes, that is a tradeoff I will never look back upon with regret.  

A little over two weeks ago we had a former President within a couple inches of being assassinated – with the agency in charge of protecting him still unable to answer many basic questions about their epic failure. A week later, we had a President whom everyone around him was insisting was perfectly fit and fine days earlier drop out of a re-election campaign.

The people arguing over these significantly more consequential events were all too happy to immediately if only temporarily take sides on the Olympics opening ceremony.

We’re all too happy to fight, to engage, all the time. We no longer care about the real purpose, our tactics or strategy, or even define a goal. We have no idea what our own definition of winning looks like. We just know we can’t let the other side win, or our side lose.

We need to get back to understanding that we don’t need to have opinions on every event, every perceived slight or every social media battle.  It doesn’t matter “what color is the dress” nor how a dog would wear pants. Even if there is a “right” answer, how does arguing about it fix a problem, or make the world better?

If you’re spending your time on these arguments, the outrage of the day or the latest conspiracy theory, you’re not helping solve anything. You’re making social media influencers wealthier with your clicks and your answers. You’re also taking up the oxygen and energy that could be better used for public debate on how best to solve real problems.