Healing the Comment Section

I fell down a rabbit hole of a heated thread last night, and honestly, it felt like my brain was being fried. The amount of casual cruelty people throw at each other behind a screen is genuinely terrifying. We’ve become so detached from the fact that there’s a living, breathing human on the other side of that profile picture. We treat interactions like a game of 'who can have the sharpest tongue,' but nobody actually wins. We all just end up feeling more isolated and cynical about the world we inhabit.

Digital kindness isn't about being toxicly positive or ignoring the issues. It’s about maintaining your dignity even when you disagree. It’s about realizing that you don’t have to attend every argument you’re invited to. In 2025, the most radical thing you can do on social media is to be genuinely encouraging. Leave a comment that says 'I’m proud of you' to a creator you follow. Send a DM to a friend who hasn't posted in a while just to check in. These digital breadcrumbs of kindness build a trail back to real connection.

As we look toward National Kindness Week 2026, we should challenge ourselves to transform our digital spaces. We spend so much of our lives online; why shouldn't that space be filled with the same empathy we expect in person? It starts with a pause. Before you hit 'send' on that snarky reply, ask yourself if it adds anything of value to the world. Most of the time, it doesn't. Choosing silence over cruelty is a form of kindness too. It’s a way of protecting your own peace while respecting someone else’s.

We have the power to change the algorithm. Algorithms feed on engagement, and for too long, they’ve been fed on rage. If we start prioritizing kindness, if we start boosting the voices that build up rather than tear down, we change the digital landscape for everyone. Your one kind comment might be the only thing that keeps someone going today. Don't underestimate the weight of your words just because they’re made of pixels. They land in the heart just the same as spoken words do.