A TED Talk on Finding Common Ground

A co-worker of mine recently shared this TED talk on LinkedIn the other day. It’s hard to find the concentration to watch a video online that’s more than two minutes long. This is just south of 14 minutes long but very much worth watching.

Finding common ground has always proved difficult. We’re humans. We’re stubborn and don’t naturally find comfort in being challenged.

It’s exponentially more difficult now. Much blame can be shifted to social media platforms, whose businesses thrive on rewarding content that drives engagement. Unfortunately, the content that gets the most engagement are often posts that either elicit emotions of fear or anger. It’s hard to metaphorically put down your sword when you are constantly rewarded in likes and comments for posting outrage (left or right).

What are your thoughts on the talk above. Does the speaker have a point?