By Jason Menard
The case of a Nova Scotia teen who has been suspended for wearing a religious shirt is getting lost in the religious rhetoric. This is not about freedom of religion or bullying – and a deeper reading of the Bible could have prevented this skirmish from starting.
In a high-school version of Judgment Day, William Swinimer has been suspended for wearing a shirt that says, “Life is wasted without Jesus.” Continue reading
By Jason Menard
Contrary to what some people may say, if you’re not pissing someone off, then you may, in fact, be doing it absolutely right.
On a daily basis, in one form or another, I’ll see a variation or two of the old, “If you’re not pissing someone off, you’re doing it wrong” adage. It’s a great statement that allows us to embrace our inner counter-culture punk and lets us proclaim that we’re proud to rage against the machine! We are not part of the blindly following masses; we’ve been roused from our social catatonia and stand apart from the system.
It’s all very dramatic. It’s also pretty much a load of bunk. Continue reading
By Jason Menard
Why is it important to listen to all sides of a discussion? Because good ideas know no bounds.
The other day I discussed how certain schoolyard-eque behaviours on Twitter can negatively impact the user experience. I focused on the how it happens – and here’s the “why” it is so important to respectfully engage people from all sides of the social and political spectrum. Continue reading
By Jason Menard
Sure, there may still be some growing pains here and there, but there are signs that social media is growing up and it’s putting the responsibility for content back where it belongs – the reader — thanks to lessons learned from traditional sources.
Two recent examples have illustrated this perfectly. I discussed the Tori Stafford murder trial coverage, and the tribulations it caused amongst a media struggling to figure out how to balance the public’s right to know with its equal right to not know. In the end, especially on Twitter, local media chose to post key messages on their main feeds, directing them to full content on a parallel Twitter channel – with full disclaimers and warnings of the graphic content. Continue reading
By Jason Menard
Sometimes I wish that those people constantly on their high horse would simply ride off into the sunset. After all, there are so many things in this world worthy of caring about, other people’s interests shouldn’t be one of them.
And, really, do these people have any fun? Continue reading
The M-Dash by Jason Menard 