Soapbox: Being Objective vs. Being Neutral

Somebody needs to hear this: being neutral is not the same as being objective.

Staying neutral in an argument because groups of people have differing opinions on the topic is NOT the same as being objective.

Being objective is about weighing the facts of the matter and THEN HAVING AN INFORMED POSITION.

Too many people think that objectivity means that you don’t have an opinion or position on a given topic.

The Earth is objectively round.

Are there people that think otherwise? Yes.

Are they right? No.

That’s me being objective. Being neutral would be me not taking a side or staying in the middle of the debate since there are opposing sides.

You should ALWAYS be objective. You should ONLY be neutral if you don’t have enough information to form a position. If you are in that situation, then SEEK more information or WEIGH the quality of information being presented to you at the time.

Never leave yourself in neutral. Neutral should be a temporary stop on your way to gathering more information.

Once you have more information, you can be objective about it. You do not have to have a strong position, but at least have an informed one that you are open to change with new information.

Today, more than ever, we need more objective people and less of those stuck in neutral.

Note: You do not have to have an informed position on everything.

I do encourage you to continuously seek more knowledge on anything that comes up in conversation with others though. It is a good way to stay curious and build connections with those around you.

The quick way to seek information is by looking up definitions and using wikipedia to get a base understanding of any topic. That’s the power of the 21st century — the entire universe of knowledge is at your fingertips.

Weigh the facts (not feelings or opinions) and then develop your own informed position on it.

One last definition — I purposefully use the word POSITION vs. OPINION.

In post, I’m using POSITION to mean how you might react to something versus an OPINION which is how you feel about something.

Example: Your opinion could be that you are pro-life. Your position could be that you want to stop anyone from having an abortion no matter the reason and you protest outside of Planned Parenthood. You could have the same opinion (being pro-life) but take a different position in that you won’t stop anyone else from getting an abortion, you just feel that is not the decision you want to make for yourself.