A few weeks ago I watched an interesting social media video about false accusations. The video was approximately seven minutes long and focused on two central themes. At the end of the video, the producer gave a brief statement:

“The video you just watched was a skit with actors. It was not real. Unfortunately, we are witnessing more and more scenarios such as this and would like to know your thoughts. Let’s have a dialogue.”

Eager to read what the viewers had to say, I began combing through the comments. I was disappointed to discover the majority of the responses had missed the point of the video entirely and opted to focus on only the superficial.

“Fake video”

“Actors”

“Fake props”

“Too long”

“The person talked too much”

Clearly, most of the viewers hadn’t watched the end of the video…and talk about a missed opportunity!

Was that really their takeaway? A fake video with fake actors and fake props?

Witnessing this breakdown in communication made me reflect: when we focus on the negativity, we miss out on finding hope. And in this case, the hope was having a meaningful dialogue.

Hope can be found everywhere. Even in the negativity.

And where there’s hope…there’s a way.