Good read in today’s NYT:

two stand out paragraphs, i felt myself nodding in agreement

the omnipresence of social media has created a new sort of shame culture. The world of Facebook, Instagram and the rest is a world of constant display and observation. The desire to be embraced and praised by the community is intense. People dread being exiled and condemned. Moral life is not built on the continuum of right and wrong; it’s built on the continuum of inclusion and exclusion.

And this.

If we’re going to avoid a constant state of anxiety, people’s identities have to be based on standards of justice and virtue that are deeper and more permanent than the shifting fancy of the crowd. In an era of omnipresent social media, it’s probably doubly important to discover and name your own personal True North, vision of an ultimate good, which is worth defending even at the cost of unpopularity and exclusion.

i am seeing the polarised commentary on my TL. and, more importantly than that, the huddling of the troops at either end. The middle ground, on anything, is rapidly vanishing. And, the ugly polar opposites is what is picked up and beamed into homes, by news television. I sometimes hear the discourse, and ask myself, who do they represent (apart from themselves) . How can anyone be so badly behaved, obnoxious, and aggressive … then answer is a brilliant line here …

In the new shame culture, the opposite of shame is celebrity — to be attention-grabbing and aggressively unique on some media platform.

(image courtesy : here)