Hold Yourself Accountable

I love learning things. I’ve taken courses in Spanish, BSL, ASL, Catering, Journalism and Nutrition, to name a few. I’ve learned more in my free time than I ever did in school – I took in information but didn’t find any use for it since most of it is irrelevant to our lives in the world.
One of the main things I learnt from my Journalism course was to take accountability. Sounds easy enough, right?
Well, today’s Journalism has a significant flaw in taking accountability, and so do humans as a whole.
A prime example of this is when a newspaper publishes a puff piece about Trans people being devil spawn, but when all the facts are disproven, they either:

• Leave the article as it is – which furthers the original agenda and spreads lies.
• Correct the article without noting that the corrections have been made.
• Correct and note or produce a follow-up article correcting the earlier’s mistakes.

Now, the best way to handle when you’re wrong is always to do the final option – correct and note.
If I get something wrong in an article, I typically either:

• Leave it as is and put an * linking to the note correcting

or

• Correct it and leave the original information in a struck-out fashion like this.

That way, the information has been corrected, you’re acknowledging that you were incorrect and made a mistake, and we can all move on with our lives.
Sadly, this isn’t generally the case in media – or in life.
Many remove the original content that was incorrect, wrong, or immoral and replace it with a makeshift apology.
Once something is on the internet, it’s there forever – I’m sure we’re all aware of this by now.
So, why don’t we take accountability?

Because we don’t like being told we’re wrong?
Because we don’t like admitting to being wrong?

I’m not sure. Personally, I strive to do better – to be a better version of myself – with every single day that comes. To hold myself accountable, improve my knowledge, and step forward in my journey.
That, in itself, is an act of self-care.
The person I was a decade ago is nowhere close to who I am now. But that person was me. I don’t like the person I was – I was drunk, hateful, and overall terrible. Am I perfect? Far from it. But acknowledging my wrongdoings and aiming to improve makes me a better person than I was.
We need to remember to hold ourselves accountable.
We shouldn’t rely on others to do it for us.