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Gone wrong here.
Tried to rewrite the first post to say this and so it was less rambling.
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How do you respond to online hate if you're a professional person with regulatory and professional standards to uphold? When you feel like misinformation shouldn't go unchallenged but the tone of the discourse is so abrasive and you suspect there's no such barriers for the others in the discussion?
Discuss. 🙂
Don’t bother. I very much doubt anyone’s opinion has been changed by someone else’s on the internet.
If directed at you, then report it.
Otherwise be very careful, I simply don't go near Facebook, twitter etc as it winds me up and I don't wish to deal with the issues of being doxxed etc
No-one has ever won an internet based argument, it's just a downward spiral of doom.
I ditched Twitter never miss it. I do have a Facebook account but I disable it for months a time, really only reactivate it when I need to get rid of something via Marketplace. Never been on Insta, TikTok or SnapChat.
Walk away. As above, no point trying to win an internet argument, there are greater forces at play.
I also ditched twitter. A friend spends his life trying to correct people on there and it's really not healthy. Facebook is full of clowns, but they'll think the same of you/us/anyone not of their opinion. (Are we the clowns?🤔)
Seems to confirm my current approach. When I see so much prejudice and misinformation and so few moderate voices it depresses me. But as you all (rightly I'm sure) point out this is not getting solved on the Internet.
Thanks for the thoughts. 🙂
Are we the clowns?🤔
Some would say so.
It's an interesting philosophical point on political views but from a factual / misinformation standpoint I am going with science based points not being indicators of big shoes and a red nose.
I thought this was going to be about the over sharing of self-filmed bike riding footage 🤣
Have you tried the restricting your social media content to bikes, or aspects of your other interests?
Possibly a bit healthier as far as remaining positive goes. There is perhaps the risk of setting up a bubble/echo chamber though.
My social media feed is full of stuff about bikes, fitness, art, music, criticism, with a side helping of lefty politics, activism, mental-health advocacy, etc.
It's why I like Instagram, it mostly only shows what I follow, and doesn't push a load of toxic shite at me.
Only engage in discussion not argument.
Try to be temperate with your choice of words
Limit it to a couple of posts then stop. No one will change their mind over a couple of posts on any social media. They might change their mind during a number of discussions over a longer period.
Any personal abuse I block and mute right away.
Only engage if you are willing to change your own mind
I have quit twitter but have recently started getting into one or two politics posts on FB using this approach.
Still don't post even a fifth of what I used to around ten years ago.
Don't read it.
Ditched FB for this reason, deleted twitter back when it was twitter when both used to wind me up and Left me worrying about the state of the world and that it was being taken over by idiots Did worry that I'd done it because I was getting old but now realise it's because I'm wiser and realise the algorithm was driving those kind of subjects towards me to get a reaction and engagement and I'd fallen for it.
Post a lot on Instagram as @ukgravelco as it's just bikes and people that inspire me and hopefully in a small way me them.
The only thing that benefits online arguments is the algorithm of the platform. I doubt that matters on here .. but FB, twitter etc are set up to make that angry engagement happen. No-one changes their minds, the folk that do get into those rants are pretty entrenched, the comments are the anger the app has built up being released back into the app as a cycle. I think arguing on there is a waste of your time and it just makes the app more valuable by feeding that whole loop.
Never wrestle with a pig
You both get covered in shit, but the pig enjoys it
The limit of my "social media" use and interactions since time began is on this forum (and the defunct bike radar), quite why folk bother reading and replying to comments on "actual" social media sites is beyond my pea sized brains understanding.
The latest reports I've read say that bot content on social media sites account for at a minimum 20% to a maximum of 45% of posted content, it will only get worse with the rise of A.I. chatbots.
I wish there was a small reset button similar to the one on my router that would reset the entire social media explosion back to 2005, and hopefully we'd have the sense to deal with it appropriatly
Never wrestle with a pig
You both get covered in shit, but the pig enjoys it
My favourite expression on the internet for the whole of today, thanks Binners. 🙂
I use Fb occasionally, about the only reason I use Xitter is to troll assholes, I never bother to look at replies, no fun in engaging with dickheads.
Don't engage. It will just wind you up even more.
I got into some real barnies on FB during the pandemic and it was doing my nut in. My much calmer and wiser wife told me to pack it in and reminded me that "You can't argue with stupid. They'll just drag you down to their level and beat you with experience".
I got off FB, restricted topics on Twitter and Insta and am much less stressed.
It's very hard sometimes to hold back when you read on-line hate but by engaging with it you are justifying the other person's presence. Ignore them and leave them to shout in to the void.
I usually go back to this, it's stood me in good stead:
https://xkcd.com/386
And know that once you open the door a crack, to make one comment on one thing... it's tough to keep it from turning into an avalanche. I've found it recently with social media posts from The Economist about the Middle East 🤬
How do you respond to online hate if you're a professional person with regulatory and professional standards to uphold?
You don't. Well, I don't anyway. No good will come of it.
There's a couple of local community groups that allow anonymous posting and I have used that feature occasionally.
But generally just avoid it.
One thought on this. I have changed my mind on a topic after one of 2 things - reading longer articles or books, or hearing from someone in person or on TV talking about a subject they know well. Basically, long enough form and without much interruption, so the ideas can transfer and sink in. Neither of those forms happen by getting into arguments or conversations on social media comments threads, though you might find a link to either of them. I'm a big believer in the idea of 'writing culture' in organisations and the same process can happen in comment threads but only if they're not wide open and at risk of being swamped. Online stuff becomes multi-faceted or fragmented too soon for discussions to evolve in a constructive way (it's almost as if it was planned to be that way eh). Forums can take the form of writing culture quite well though, there's probably an optimum size before they become more like a comments thread, too fast-fire and going off on tangents faster than they can develop. Would be an interesting thing to study tbh.