My Discord

After the tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk, all anyone on TV or social media seems to mention whenever the word Discord comes up is how intrinsically evil it is—or how platforms like that are supposedly destroying our kids. They make it sound as if the app itself had anything to do with Charlie’s murder, other than the fact that a mentally unstable person had an account and shared his hate with a small group of people who have largely condemned him since.

To me, that would be like blaming the Ford Motor Company if the shooter had owned a Mustang and had private conversations in the car that were recorded before the crime. Most of the talking heads babbling about it have never actually used Discord or have any idea how it works. Those little details never seem to matter when the media needs a new villain to drive ratings.

In Discord’s defense, like every social media platform, it has both negative and positive sides. What’s funny is hearing pundits from CNN or FOX criticize it—while they themselves are active on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), which are arguably two of the most toxic online spaces out there.

I can only speak from my own experience. When I was first introduced to Discord, I had no idea what it was, how it worked, or that it would one day become one of the most valuable tools in my success at Full Sail University.

When I began my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, I quickly learned that Full Sail operates very differently from traditional universities—it doesn’t use a semester system, and new students can start any month. By luck, the month I started, a fellow student who was a dedicated gamer (and very familiar with Discord) invited our incoming class to join a group she was creating. I immediately said yes—though I had no clue what she was talking about. I even Googled it just to keep up and pretended I was as “hip” as everyone else (which, ironically, proved that I wasn’t).

I remember driving with my daughter, who was still in high school, when that distinctive Discord notification pinged on my phone. Because she’s a gamer, she recognized the sound immediately and was shocked that her ancient father had joined Discord before she did. For about one glorious second, I might have even been cool. Later, when she went off to college, she joined too—and I quickly realized that Discord gave us a kind of neutral territory. There, I could interact with her more as a peer than just as “Dad.”

I can’t overstate how important Discord has been to my Full Sail experience, especially as an online student. Without it, this degree would have felt far more isolating. My group quickly became an interactive, supportive part of my education. Not everyone from our program joined at the start, and a few dropped off along the way, but the ones who stayed have become true friends.

As the “old man” of the group, I can honestly say these are great kids who will make us all proud. Yes, some might seem overly “woke” or politically opinionated by my generation’s standards... but here’s what people don’t realize: these students are far more accepting and kind to each other than we ever were. And in two and a half years with this Discord group, you know what we’ve never talked about… Politics! Not once.
Try spending ten minutes on Facebook without seeing politically charged hate from someone on your friends list—I’ll wait.

Discord, for me, has been the exact opposite of what the media claims: not a breeding ground for hate, but a space for connection, collaboration, and mutual respect. I’ve loved my Discord experience so far and plan to keep using it as long as I’m on social media.