I have found that those times I succumbed to the seductive urge to judge a person have been far less enjoyable and pleasant than those times when I have permitted myself to experience without the burden of judging others. I remember watching a movie as part of a test group; at the end of the movie, I was asked to provide an evaluation and rating of the film I had just seen. The act of judging the movie removed much of my affection for it.

We now judge almost continuously. For those of us that use Facebook (1.71 billion active monthly users with 1.13 billion daily users [1]) we are continuously judging. In that endless stream called the Facebook feed, we judge each article by rating it with a like, a heart, an angry face, or a tear. For those of us that use Reddit (250 million users with 8 billion page views per month [2]), the users upvote or downvote every post; these votes are how Reddit works at all.

Our judging is not restricted to the internet. As managers we judge our employees. And, with 360 reviews [3], as employees we judge our managers. With Lyft and Uber, every time we hire someone for a ride, we are asked to judge our chauffeur; additionally, our chauffeur is asked to judge us as a passenger. Once I realized this, I felt a pressure to be overwhelmingly nice to my Lyft drivers (lest I be judged poorly and unable to hire a Lyft in the future). This phenomenon was taken to the extreme in the “Nosedive” episode of “Black Mirror.”

I have found several aspects of these new tools (Facebook, Lyft, Reddit) fun and useful. And indeed, they work because of judgements provided by the community. I wonder, though, if there is some cost associated with judging everything.

I leave you with a quote from Luke 6:37 of the Bible,

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

[1] http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/27/technology/facebook-earnings-high-expectations/

[2] http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/reddit-stats/

[3] https://www.qualtrics.com/qualtrics-360/360-degree-employee-assessments/