I’ve been learning to quickly scan my spam email before deleting it all in one lump. It’s a simple lesson, but today I found a lovely personal email that had mistakenly been sent to spam. I don’t know why it landed there. Meanwhile, spam often arrives to my inbox, improperly marked as real mail. I don’t know why.
I’m so thankful I paused before trashing something meaningful. And I realize that what others mark as meaningful might serve as trash to me. I don’t want technology to decide for me anymore.
As I study the changing ways we absorb data in our inboxes and through social media, I remember to slow down, to sift more expertly, and to give thought to labels. In our data overload, we often miss the meaningful thing and rely on flawed mechanisms to tell us what matters.
What social media sites mark as trending or viral often mean nothing and serve no purpose to improve lives or bless others. We have to dig down and elevate what’s meaningful now more than ever.