Author's Note: This open letter is no excuse for being racist, homophobic, ableist, transphobic, Islamophobic, classist, etc. This is intended as a discussion about those who have opinions that are not based on bias or hate. Check yourself before you read this.

In this day and age, we have transferred the majority of our political discourse, discussions about our opinions, and just about any kind of conversation you could imagine to the world of the internet. Whereas in the past much of our talk would have taken place via sending letters, phoning our politicians, participating in active campaigns or just overall being outspoken in our societies, we've turned to screaming into the void of the internet in order to search for the "magical reason" that our peers don't see the world under the same lenses as we do. Within the past 20 years, we've lost this ability (whether or not that is a good thing is another story), but we've also lost our ability to do something extremely simple. It's by far one of the actions that we do the least, and it has caused us all kinds of pain:

We've lost our ability to actively listen.

According to the International Online Training Program On Intractable Conflict/University of Colorado, active listening is defined as follows:

"Active listening is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding. Often when people talk to each other, they don't listen attentively. They are often distracted, half listening, half thinking about something else. When people are engaged in a conflict, they are often busy formulating a response to what is being said. They assume that they have heard what their opponent is saying many times before, so rather than paying attention, they focus on how they can respond to win the argument."

Now many of us, including myself, have backed into this hole of using our technology 24/7 and "multi-tasking" while listening to each other. This has evolved into us expressing ourselves and our opinions without the next step of actively discussing your opinions, what makes you feel that way, what your fears are, what you want the world to be like in the future, etc. This is a giant reason that our political discourse has evolved into both sides actively screaming at the other and not truly understanding the fears and concerns of the other party.

I'll admit that I am a 22 year old cis gay male, I come from a middle class white family, I'm not very religious, and I am very liberal in all senses of the word. However, a large part of my favorite conversations I've ever had have been those hard conversations with people who are not in my circle. This may be people of a different race, sexuality, religious belief, etc.

I recall very specifically walking along a river with two people when I was abroad in Spain. All three of us were of different religious backgrounds, and I'm homosexual while they are both heterosexual. We had a nice chat about our religious beliefs and one of our group and I had a chat about our differing opinions about sexuality. Although none of us agreed on any of our views, we had a fantastic chat about why we felt the way we did and our background that influenced our views. I not once felt discriminated against, and yet I cherish that conversation that we had. If it had been on the internet, who would know what kind of screaming might have occurred.

Many of us are of the opinion that frantically typing into the internet will magically change the opinion of the opposing party. Ninety-nine percent of the time, this will not happen. We live in a headstrong society. That isn't changing soon. What we can do, if posting our opinions, is rally those of the same opinions to make positive change. I recently posted a longer discussion around gun control in the United States, Black Lives Matter and our Racism issue. This was not to "scream" at the other side, nor was it to cause issues. It was to gather those who are on the verge and may want to understand exactly what my opinions are/what influences them. I'll be the first to admit that I can sometimes "scream into the internet void," but I actively attempt to read articles from both sides of the aisle, be as informed as I can and to have effective conversations.

I won't name certain organizations/parties, but I truly think that a large part of our society has lost their ability to actively speak and listen to those of the other sides. We need to lay down our biases and our nurture based opinions and try to see the other side. We're all human. We must start to treat each other as such.