4 ms·

"You Will Never Win an Argument On the Internet"=> True, but participation is important because even if the person you are arguing with will rarely change their

by fsndz 2y ago

"You Will Never Win an Argument On the Internet"=> True, but participation is important because even if the person you are arguing with will rarely change their mind in the process, you might convince some bystanders. So for very important issues, I feel it is important to participate even if the game is rigged. Social media influences everything, politics included. For ideas that are important, we can't just let a vacuum for fear of seeing it filled with propaganda and lies.

karmelapple 2y ago
What will be even more effective? Talk to that person, face-to-face if possible, who you are friends with, who is empathetic to you and your views. As this article points out, online public posting is performative. Like the management guidance that is unfortunately not at all practiced enough, "praise publicly, criticize privately." If you're going to get into a situation where criticism is unavoidable, do it when the person's "punishment" of the criticism won't be public to be read forever and ever. Plus, it's a lot harder to have zero empathy with someone whose eyes you are looking into, whose presence is right next to you. But an anonymous internet poster, or even identified internet poster who you won't see for months or years? A lot of people don't care about that person's feelings at all, and don't have the leaps of imagination that what they type might actually cause that person pain / tears / sadness / etc.
somenameforme 2y ago
The author asks when was the last time you changed your view based on an online argument. Now ask yourself when the last time you changed your view based on somebody else's argument. That's probably even more rare because I expect very near to 100% of people browse similarly to myself. I might read a post or two from a couple of guys arguing on whatever topic, but I quickly lose interest and move on. The only exception would be if I'm looking for a spot to also 'jump in'. But when it's just you and somebody else - you're performing for an empty theater 99.99999% of the time.
barbazoo 2y ago
It’s a lost cause. For every misinformation out there that you comment on there are thousands that that you don’t. All it does is increase engagement in a toxic environment. It drags you down and lifts no one up.
- rbanffy 2y ago
  How can it be that we invented this marvelous tool to connect us, and then we proved unable to make full use of it? Sometimes I get some Forbidden Planet vibes. It's like the Krell died when they invented Twitter.

by fsndz 2y ago

karmelapple 2y ago

What will be even more effective? Talk to that person, face-to-face if possible, who you are friends with, who is empathetic to you and your views. As this article points out, online public posting is performative. Like the management guidance that is unfortunately not at all practiced enough, "praise publicly, criticize privately." If you're going to get into a situation where criticism is unavoidable, do it when the person's "punishment" of the criticism won't be public to be read forever and ever. Plus, it's a lot harder to have zero empathy with someone whose eyes you are looking into, whose presence is right next to you. But an anonymous internet poster, or even identified internet poster who you won't see for months or years? A lot of people don't care about that person's feelings at all, and don't have the leaps of imagination that what they type might actually cause that person pain / tears / sadness / etc.

somenameforme 2y ago

The author asks when was the last time you changed your view based on an online argument. Now ask yourself when the last time you changed your view based on somebody else's argument. That's probably even more rare because I expect very near to 100% of people browse similarly to myself. I might read a post or two from a couple of guys arguing on whatever topic, but I quickly lose interest and move on. The only exception would be if I'm looking for a spot to also 'jump in'. But when it's just you and somebody else - you're performing for an empty theater 99.99999% of the time.

barbazoo 2y ago

It’s a lost cause. For every misinformation out there that you comment on there are thousands that that you don’t. All it does is increase engagement in a toxic environment. It drags you down and lifts no one up.

rbanffy 2y ago
How can it be that we invented this marvelous tool to connect us, and then we proved unable to make full use of it? Sometimes I get some Forbidden Planet vibes. It's like the Krell died when they invented Twitter.