In September, I taught several blocks of instruction at the ConcealedCarry.com Guardian Conference focused on vehicle defense. Video clips made their way onto social media, and one in particular generated comments that warrant further discussion.
The Danger of Short Form Content On Social Media
By their nature, clips are taken out of context, and you as the observer must keep that in mind. When watching short-form content, you should always seek more information, especially if you disagree with the message you think is being conveyed. Context is everything, and 30 seconds out of a speech, lecture, or presentation does not provide it.
Regardless of language or dialect, human communication has four universal parts: sender, message, medium, and receiver. When you see only a brief excerpt from a lecture or class that you were not present for the entirety of, you as the receiver are missing critical information about the other three parts.
Disagreements run rampant on social media largely because the medium — sound bites and brief video clips — excludes a lot of essential context about the sender and the message. Consequently, the receiver perceives the already limited information through a series of filters formed by their own biases, prejudices, and privileges, often resulting in angry, insulting, or completely off base replies.
