All too often since the 2016 election, the rise of a more heated climate between different ideologies has grown and only divided everyone.

There isn’t any one party to blame. It takes two passionate groups to create this level of tension and vitriol.

This new culture that involves spewing hate towards others only because someone isn’t on the same side as them is childish.

It isn’t hip or funny to disagree with people just because they’re “liberal snowflakes” or “old, white republicans.”

Living in these self-contained echo chambers where everyone agrees and there is no political discourse may feel safe, but it is just as dangerous as it is comfortable.

Recently, there was an incident at a Vans store involving a 14-year old boy walking into the store wearing a “Make America Great Again” ha, a Trump-synonymous symbol. According to the boy’s mother, the employee told her son “take off your hat” and then dropped an f-bomb to the hat-wearing teen.

This video has circulated around the internet and has led to supporters of both parties to weigh in on the video.

Many tweets were in support of the employee without the full picture.

Regardless of whether we agree with one another, cursing out people who have different viewpoints is not the answer. It’s shameful more people can’t find a middle ground, clinging to an ideology.

Social media is a tool that can be used for many things at a quick rate. However, when used to spread close-minded ideas, it only limits us as a society.

Just because someone is anti-conservative or anti-liberal doesn’t mean they have to die on a hill for their beliefs.

Real situations are rarely as black and white as they’re made out to be.

People should be more willing to take more steps to understand things they don’t necessarily agree with.

Since the 2016 election, a more split society has erupted from the silence, furthering the divide.

Instead of understanding one another and learning to accept different beliefs, the differing sides are often too happy to stay separated with no intent to bridge any gap.

Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are also keeping everyone within a filter bubble.

These filter bubbles are created by the algorithms that bring users content based off of the things they enjoy seeing. If someone likes a lot of tweets bashing President Trump, then that user is likely to see more of that instead of pro-Trump content.

Most users are content seeing only similar philosophies show up on their feed.

Who knows whether it’s the fear of having a difficult conversation or blissful ignorance that leads one to stay within their bubble.

More and more conservatives and liberals are not having constructive conversations are quick to point a finger instead, blaming one another.

Political parties will always have their differences, but it won’t take everyone agreeing to fix everything. However, it will take an open mind for any progress.

If someone doesn’t share the same opinion, take a second to learn why they don’t agree.

It doesn’t matter how one phrases it, disregarding the opinion of an entire demographic and pretending they don’t exist or ignoring what they have to say is the byproduct of a closed mind.

Don’t use childish labels, and look past disagreements with others and to better understand their point of view.