Opinions. Everybody has one about something. Most of the people you will come in contact with will not have the same opinion as you. No matter how much you disagree, or want to blurt out that they are "entitled to their wrong opinion," you need to listen to them and actually take in what they are saying. This may be hard for most people, but here's why it's extremely beneficial for not only yourself, but society as a whole.

Think of literally any controversial topic this nation is faced with today. In most cases, you'll end up hearing arguments supported by two radically charged sides. Why is this?

The reason for most cases is that people are not educated beyond the ideas that their parents have imposed them or what they have read off clickbait articles on Facebook. Like this article here. This article is not backed by scientific research on why listening to another person's opinion makes you a well rounded person. This article was written solely off my own personal opinion that listening and respecting opinions helps you better yourself and society, and here you are- listening (and hopefully respecting) to what I have to say, but the problem arises when people try to make uneducated or outdated arguments on current social and political issues.

In the case of family influence, generations are brought up to believe in the same things as their elders. Not only can the ideas people are using to base their ideas be outdated, but also completely biased and made without any educational merit based on where they are from, their socio-economic class and political affiliation. The mixture of all of these upbringings serves as the perfect recipe for completely radicalized ideology and a state of mind where no other possible idea is morally right than their own.

On the other side of things, many people are only informed by biased clickbait they find as they scroll down their Facebook timelines. Most of these articles have absolutely no merit to them and are written by the very people I talked about above. These articles stretch the tiny bit of truth they have in them to lure others to believe in the same radicalized notions they do.

All of this is a recipe for disaster. The number one tip when discussing any topic you have a strong opinion in is to be educated by some type of unbiased, legitimate source. Second piece of advice would be to sit and listen to what the other person has to say without interjecting your own feelings onto their opinion. Just sit and listen, and try to take in their viewpoint and see where they are coming from.

If you give them this respect, most times they will give it right back to you when you are given the chance to express your viewpoints. This can open your eyes to why some people think the way they do and help you understand the reasons they oppose the belief you strongly support. Try to avoid adhomynym attacks, especially ones attacking whichever political ideology they agree with.

Opening up and listening to people, especially ones that have opposing views as you can really help you expand your understanding of how the world works. If everybody were to do such a simple thing as this, imagine how much better of a place this world could be.