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Well, I used to think I had a healthy relationship with drinking, but ohhh... Not that social media is the same thing at all. But I have a degree in philosoph

Well, I used to think I had a healthy relationship with drinking, but ohhh... Not that social media is the same thing at all. But I have a degree in philosophy and was trained in my formative years to argue with folks. That's a terrible mode to be in on social media-- it doesn't serve the people around me and it doesn't serve me at all. So I stopped arguing and just posted nice things, like songs I sing or good things that happen to me or pictures of my kids. The problem (for me, maybe not for everyone else) is that: - I can't really get out of the mode of arguing - I'm constantly encountering people I love casually sharing memes that say that "people like me" are the root cause of all societal problems - I'm constantly reading between a bunch of lines and seeing where folks I love are in fact doing terrible things for their families and relationships. So, like, that's not at all a fun mode to be in And it's worse when I have an impulse to check in on it dozens of times a day. To add to conversations that are dumb, to check in on some situation or other that has nothing to do with me, or whatever. So no, I don't think that there is a super healthy way for me, personally, to work with Facebook specifically. The other stuff, I dunno. I don't mind message boards, instagram, etc. But I really gotta stay off FB. Just like alcohol, it did a bunch of good things for me and I was using it for those good benefits, but just like alcohol it bundles its own problems.

drewmol 9y ago
>But I have a degree in philosophy and was trained in my formative years to argue with folks. Interestingly, the way we often teach debate is: Someone can argue either side of an issue, and be judged on the approach, successful influence or tactics used, with insufficient weight on the merits of the position. I suspect this helps promote the climate that is reflected in your followup statement: >I can't really get out of the mode of arguing - I'm constantly encountering people I love casually sharing memes that say that "people like me" are the root cause of all societal problems - I'm constantly reading between a bunch of lines and seeing where folks I love are in fact doing terrible things for their families and relationships.
- scarecrowbob 9y ago
  To a great extent, I see people formally arguing well (or, at the very least, trying to signal that they are arguing well) but so many argue for absurd propositions and hellish conclusions. Much of my thought over the last couple of years centers on how much of our rationalist skills are honed around developing resistance strategies. I believe that we have far more and better mental tools at our disposal for telling us that we are being rational than we actually have tools for being rational. Maybe that is, in itself an irrational belief. It's kind of difficult to justify, but it feels correct, so I kneel doan and act as if I believe it, especially with regards to my own thought patterns. At the very least, however, logic and rationality only operate well if we have a common set of quality premises. So even with a good education in rhetoric we often can't get out of our heads enough to look for truth instead of seek the gratification of justifying ourselves. Heck, my MA concentrates on rhetoric and community, and I have a hard time simply being okay when I generally agree with folks who are saying nutty things because of their poor logical skills. And so I can't really be around an environment that foments that kind of casual bad thought.
  - stfwn 9y ago
    It may be helpful or even liberating for you to read outside your field a bit, in linguistic anthropology on the topic of language ideologies. For me, I have realized people are often not simply ‘unskilled’, but instead just do not follow the script of your specific language ideology. They might be saying interesting or smart stuff if you know how to interpret it.
greedo 9y ago
Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/386/ https://xkcd.com/386/
- scarecrowbob 9y ago
  To be honest, that's exactly what I quote in my brain when I want to shame myself out of responding to people :D

drewmol 9y ago

>But I have a degree in philosophy and was trained in my formative years to argue with folks. Interestingly, the way we often teach debate is: Someone can argue either side of an issue, and be judged on the approach, successful influence or tactics used, with insufficient weight on the merits of the position. I suspect this helps promote the climate that is reflected in your followup statement: >I can't really get out of the mode of arguing - I'm constantly encountering people I love casually sharing memes that say that "people like me" are the root cause of all societal problems - I'm constantly reading between a bunch of lines and seeing where folks I love are in fact doing terrible things for their families and relationships.

scarecrowbob 9y ago
To a great extent, I see people formally arguing well (or, at the very least, trying to signal that they are arguing well) but so many argue for absurd propositions and hellish conclusions. Much of my thought over the last couple of years centers on how much of our rationalist skills are honed around developing resistance strategies. I believe that we have far more and better mental tools at our disposal for telling us that we are being rational than we actually have tools for being rational. Maybe that is, in itself an irrational belief. It's kind of difficult to justify, but it feels correct, so I kneel doan and act as if I believe it, especially with regards to my own thought patterns. At the very least, however, logic and rationality only operate well if we have a common set of quality premises. So even with a good education in rhetoric we often can't get out of our heads enough to look for truth instead of seek the gratification of justifying ourselves. Heck, my MA concentrates on rhetoric and community, and I have a hard time simply being okay when I generally agree with folks who are saying nutty things because of their poor logical skills. And so I can't really be around an environment that foments that kind of casual bad thought.
- stfwn 9y ago
  It may be helpful or even liberating for you to read outside your field a bit, in linguistic anthropology on the topic of language ideologies. For me, I have realized people are often not simply ‘unskilled’, but instead just do not follow the script of your specific language ideology. They might be saying interesting or smart stuff if you know how to interpret it.

greedo 9y ago

Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/386/ https://xkcd.com/386/

scarecrowbob 9y ago
To be honest, that's exactly what I quote in my brain when I want to shame myself out of responding to people :D