This past year has been difficult for a lot of people because of the heated, toxic political climate.

It seems there is a new bombshell or allegation thrust into the media every day about the presidential campaign. It’s exhausting information to grapple with in addition to all of the other information we have to process through each of our own

individual lives.

The heated environment—and at times hateful rhetoric—has engulfed the public and seems to be visible now in people’s lives, and not just on national news television and news articles.

Voters have been encouraged to openly discuss the country’s issues by the presidential candidates’ abilities to quickly interject information through social media.

Social media—and the keyboard confidence that comes when writing behind a screen instead of communicating in person—has allowed us to more openly discuss our opinions.

It has driven us to disregard people, ignore them and further divide within ourselves.

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This ability to shame and destroy others so openly has allowed us to see parts of people that we may have never seen if it weren’t for the over-sharing that happens online and in social media platforms.

It has torn up our previously conceived perceptions now that we are able to easily know which side our friends have chosen regarding this election.

Admittedly, it’s quite difficult to continue to love and respect people when they have very strong, different views that seem closed-minded.

Social media has been a big part of this presidential campaign. Through it, the presidential candidates tweet, post and share things they find relevant to their constituents. They celebrate themselves and trash the other, online, publicly.

Celebrities have joined in on this online fight as well. Everyone seems to turn to Twitter or Facebook to share their own views or opinions, nowadays.

However, celebrities and our presidential nominees are not the only people engaging in arguments online.

We’ve all been there.

It’s hard to see someone share and discuss something so adamantly, especially if you feel passionately against that viewpoint.

So, what do we do about this? Delete them to avoid seeing their posts you see as negative?

Maybe, if you want. But I think that’s a bit petty, and plus, having contacts is very important, especially for college students.

Even if those contacts have different views, you still have to network online.

Do we try to change them?

Some of us do, which is why these online bashing wars are so ongoing. We engage in arguments, educated discussions, debates or full-on Twitter wars to try to change people’s beliefs.

We want them to see life the way we do.

We want them to be able to understand where we’re coming from. We want them to see why we think they’re wrong.

However, we don’t do this to people we don’t really know or

care about.

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We don’t go out of our way to tear down just any opposing argument—we do so only to the people who we believed had redeemable qualities before we knew of their opposing views.

We only try to save people that we actually have the slightest amount of care for.

Ignore them?

We can’t just ignore people for the rest of our lives, right? We also can’t ignore the fact that you know that you don’t agree with each other. This might create some passive aggressiveness that could complicate things down the line.

Hate them?

Hate should never be an option. We cannot hate each other because of our differences. We cannot continue a cycle of discrimination, hatred and abuse.

Accept them?

Sometimes—although it hurts you, burns your soul, goes completely against everything you stand for—you just have to be nice and accept someone for their differences.

Don’t be that one person always trying to correct another person, being extremely adamant and persistent on every single one of the words you utter.

Just let someone explain themselves in whichever way they can, and acknowledge the ability we have to voice our opinions openly in this country.

Follow Julian Cardenas on Twitter.