If the word of the year for 2016 was ‘post-truth’, and the word of 2017 was ‘fake news’, what does that mean for communication? Because we have lots to talk about - politics, conflict, the economy, the environment … and that’s before we get to everyday life! Has social media made us worse at talking to each other? Are friends and families drifting apart? Has politics become too divisive?

Modern life presents surfeits - too much of this, too much of that. One of the surfeits is opinion - we’re exposed to lots of public and personal opinions. Overwhelmed by choice, it’s tempting to choose those facts and opinions that match our own. This gives us the comfort of being surrounded by people and opinions that say we’re right. And in a post-truth world, the best we can hope for is that our opinion wins through weight of numbers rather than reason.

10 Rules for Talking is an initiative that talks about talking.