The Rise of the Online Truth Teller
“I want to make a difference.” This began a journey that many well-intentioned people have had with their online experience. “I see so many lies and misunderstandings online: I want to help people get to the truth.” This has led to the rise of truth-tellers online, which is “a phenomenon often used to describe social media influencers and citizen journalists. A complex and polarizing development. Driven by declining trust in traditional institutions, these figures promise to deliver the "real story" to audiences who feel underserved by mainstream media.” (as Google AI told me).
This is me. This is many people I know. This often comes from a place of feeling small and insignificant in this big world and “I want to make my voice heard, too” and “I just want to DO something!” It comes from feeling the weight of compassion fatigue as we hear of another shooting, another natural disaster, another war, another child dying. It isn’t that these things weren’t happening before, it means that with technology (for better and for worse), we get to hear about it ALL THE TIME. It means a 24-news cycle, instead of one hour of news in the evening.
For me, I’ve found some benefits and drawbacks from this experience. When I am not careful, I get swept into soul-sucking online conversations that leave me feeling cynical and drained for real life. Feeling misunderstood and that “No one is hearing truth!” With careful contemplation and preparation, I’ve been able to share some truth in manners that have moved from online into real life in surprising and delightful ways. I’ve grown in my ability to communicate, and feel like others have sometimes been able better to hear what I am saying. In general, I feel that I have learned a lot from working to be a truth-teller online, but have to continually re-evaluate and set strong rules for myself for it to have any value or benefit at all. And even then, I often get it wrong and need to go back and fix it. Here are some things that have helped me out:
1. I don’t need to have an opinion about everything. In fact, I shouldn’t. That is exhausting. There will be many issues that come up that I just don’t have time or energy for: and that is okay. It is helpful to identify them (“This is something that I am not going to mess with”) and move on. There is a lot of truth out there: I don’t have to tell all of the truths about everything.
2. I have a hierarchy of what/who is valuable to me, and so what will get more of my attention. Real life is more valuable to me than online. My family will get more attention from me than strangers. This isn’t a right/wrong thing: it doesn’t mean something I don’t value as much is wrong. But it does mean that I feel called to be a part of some things more than others. Personally, I feel called to serve the poor, the immigrant, the widow, and the fatherless in a special way. I will be more drawn to the issues around those people groups. I feel called to missions, and to Brazil specifically. Those are the things that will draw my attention, and that I will prioritize. Those are the things that I will work on telling truths about.
3. I will choose my battles wisely. There just isn’t time for most battles, especially if it is taking my valuable time away from my real-life priorities. Even when it is about something I value, even when I have the time and energy to do so: there are a lot of battles that just aren’t wise to fight. Sometimes it is just not the right place, time, or person to be telling that truth to.
4. If I am not willing to invite them over for coffee to talk about this truth I am telling, I will probably not argue with them about it online. How does this online life translate into real life? Am I living out my values of kindness, hospitality, and dignity for all humans in my words and actions online? If I wouldn’t say the same words loudly in a coffee shop to a person (and people overhearing), I should never write them online. Conversely, if I wouldn’t feel safe enough to argue with that person in real life saying what they are saying, I shouldn’t continue that unsafe conversation online either.
5. Boundaries are to protect others and to protect me. Whew—that online world can get brutal, real quick. I put boundaries on myself to make sure I am consistent with my values of being kind and giving grace, but I also do not need to continue a conversation with someone who is not doing the same. That is not “cutting off the relationship,” that is being wise and realizing that they are not in a healthy place to treat me as a human worthy of basic kindness. It is the same thing as leaving a conversation IRL that does not feel safe. It isn’t being a snowflake, it is realizing that us humans get carried away with our feelings and sometimes need space.
6. If I am not willing to put time and effort into telling this truth well, I shouldn’t get into an argument about it. I don’t really have much of an opinion about tariffs. Its been a hot topic, but it isn’t a topic I care about. I am not willing to spend time digging into learning about tariffs to give others truth about it. It may be something that ends up being a big deal IRL, but until it directly affects me or someone I love dearly, I probably will stay ignorant about it, and let people say whatever they want about it, even if what they say sounds pretty “off” to me.
7. If I am willing to put time and effort into telling this truth, I should share what I am learning with others. For me, I love to write. I’ve created a website (blog) as an outlet for me to express things I care about, as well as make that available for others who would like to see what I have to share. It feels really good to work hard to put my thoughts into a cohesive blog, that says something I feel is an important point to make. It also helps me to create things, as one of my values is to create over consume.
8. Not all ways of “Sharing” truth are equal, or helpful. Online, the easy way of “sharing” is to repost something someone else has created. This is a quick dopamine hit, as you connect with something, triumphantly think, “YES! THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED TO SAY!” and then post it into the world with success. This bypasses the heavy, hard work of thinking it through, processing it, digesting it, and creating something yourself about that subject. But your brain gets the same hit of dopamine as if you HAD done the hard work. Everyone wins, right? No. While sometimes this can promote helpful things other people have done, it doesn’t actually help you: you have continued consuming, rather than creating. You have also perhaps fallen into the trap of posting a package of information that has a couple things in there you wouldn’t not have written yourself, if you had taken the time to do it.
9. Good sharing of truth online includes living it out in real life. People can feel the difference of a truth spoken and a truth lived. If you are truth telling about the importance of caring for veterans, and yet you do not contribute/volunteer/help with veterans in your own life, the truth falls a bit flat. As people say, put your money (and time) where your mouth is.
10. Communication is only successful when it is understood by both parties involved. Good truth-telling is good communication. And if you continue to say something but the person can’t really hear/understand it, then you need to figure out other ways to say the same thing. Sometimes another medium is needed (written vs. spoken words, words vs. pictures, coming at the subject from a different angle, and so on). It often helps to backtrack to where you know you have common ground with the person, and move forward from there.
11. I need regular breaks. I need breaks from being online, and I need breaks from feeling like it is my job to be a truth-teller. It can become consuming and exhausting, and sometimes lead me to think that “I’m the only one out there.” It reminds me that even Elijah in the Bible needed a nap, a meal, and for God to tell him he had 7,000 other “Truth-tellers.” I am not alone, and I am not the only one who can make this truth known. God is a really great, big, creative God.
12. I feel called to show people what it looks like to love them, even when we disagree. This is really hard, and this is really humbling. You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat you when you disagree with them. It is really hard when a disagreement suddenly turns into a personal attack on your character. But it helps me when I remember that this is something I feel God is asking me to do, even if it isn’t fair.