These days, society and its attitudes are becoming increasingly polarized. Camps, social sects, and rival groups are forming, pitting one against the other and remaining in constant conflict for decades. And the only one who benefits from this is those in power.

Supposedly, we have access to information; supposedly, we can see all points of view; supposedly, we can discover the truth for ourselves. But in practice, the internet is organized in such a way that the exact opposite happens. Search engines, ads, artificial intelligence – everything offers us only the information that is already expected to receive our automatic approval.

Social media convinces you that you’re right. No matter how absurd your belief is, you’ll find validation for it there. If you hold a normal and reasonable belief, then the network takes on the mission of reinforcing it to the extreme and turning you into a fanatic who doesn’t want to hear anything else.

Social media always makes you think that everyone else shares your opinion. Because no matter how misguided it may be, the world is a big place, and there will always be enough people misled by the same misguided idea. This is how a social sect forms so quickly and easily – one that is convinced of its own righteousness and isolates everything else.

But when society divides into camps, it never stops there. Because once we entrench ourselves in our camp, the next dangerous step follows – the dehumanization of the enemy. The other camp is crazy. The other camp is evil. Everyone in the opposing group is abnormal and dedicated to the destruction of the world, while in our camp we are the divinely anointed saviors of humanity.

The more convinced we are that the other side isn’t human, the easier it is to hate them. Over time, the chasm between the camps grows ever wider; differing viewpoints lose all contact with one another and come together only to wage war. And who benefits from this? Those in power.

So how do we combat division? Through friendship. When we focus on the humanity in people and develop the ability to connect with them beyond labels, that’s when we arrive at the truth. Having friends from different philosophies, religions, generations, nationalities, genders, and everything else – that is the key to a holistic understanding of the world. And when we understand our true nature, we’ll see that deep down, we all want the same thing.