The intensely public nature of social media, which makes it an amazing tool and opportunity to reach a large audience, simultaneously can make it a terrible forum for discussing sensitive topics. Its “melting pot” nature is not particularly suiting for “in house” discussions. It’s a forum that easily yields misunderstanding. And it’s also impersonal, which means it doesn’t always bring out our best, since we can hide behind our keyboards.

These two realities create something of a tension of interests for me — a great opportunity on the one hand; and a danger on the other. I’ve been wrestling through this tension a lot as of late.

Another tension I feel is the divided results of such posts. Those same posts that seem to inflame and do no good simultaneously seem to benefit others greatly. Unfortunately, often times its the less-than-beneficial sort of stuff that seems to occur in the comments. That’s where things seem to get nasty most of the time. And it’s public. But for as many negative responses I’ve witnessed, I’ve had a counterbalancing amount of amazingly constructive and positive conversations and responses in messages, over the phone, and in person. So, this is another tension over which I’m wrestling.

I’m trying to wrestle through this. If I have in any way failed to strike that balance, I apologize.

For the encouragement some of you have expressed and the constructive conversations that were had, I’m grateful. The rest, I find regrettable. And that’s not meant to be in reference to any of you; I’m talking about what’s on me (my responsibility) as the one posting. It’s given me pause and making me reconsider.