Arguing on social media

The process of expressing someone’s thoughts and arguing can be of different forms. Nowadays, with the advancement of social media, people tend to make posts and express their opinions in the writing form. Very often, the commenting posts grows in the long debate with the use of abusive language. Sometimes, the speaker in the digital area forget about the initial purpose of the debates. In such circumstances, it is difficult to say about the usefulness of arguing about scientific approaches in the social media such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. The audience there often finds the way to have fun but not to express their argumentative thoughts. In such a way, it is better to avoid arguing about the topics which are interesting to someone in social media and prefer specialized forums where users are interested in the offered issue.

The way people respond in the social media and face-to-face communications are completely different. According to Zentling (2017), “ We respond very differently to what people write than to what they say–even if those things are exactly the same” (par. 1). There are several reasons for this. When reading, people have much time to think over the thoughts which they see. That is why they can transform the information vice versa or even exaggerate the author’s claims. All these lead to the fact that even the slightest disagreement raises into the chunk of negative expressions and comments. Also, people do not fear that they can be punished for their bullying in social media. The distance between the speakers, which sometimes thousands of kilometers, makes people more courageous. Often, those people who write negative comments, forget about the ethical principles and sense of respect for other people’s thoughts.

Some people can argue that social media was created for people to share their thoughts, feelings, and concerns about various issued in which they and other people are interested. But it is necessary to remember that there are many fake pages in social media, the owners of which the only search for the way how to humiliate someone’s feelings and concerns. Such people who often give negative comments are known as trolls. The psychologists describe such trolls as “ as “ oppositional, passive-aggressive, narcissistic, paranoid, and sociopathic personality styles [that] just want to argue, to hurt, to cause trouble, to pump up their self-esteem with inflated opinions” (Freyne par. 3). Internet users are easily detected because their style of communication often has nothing to do with fair and reasonable arguing. The use of abusive language is an indicator that the person has nothing to provide as an argument. The best advice on how to remain calm is not to respond to such comments.

Many people who make posts and go into discussion with readers think that they have enough knowledge or background which will help to reasonably argue in comments and defend their point of view. Unfortunately, such thoughts are mistaken. When speaking about arguing in social media, Bilton (2014) warns that “ You can never win an argument with someone on social media” (par. 6). The author calls the tries to discuss even the remotely controversial topic a “ fool’s errand” (par. 7). It is very easy to lose a point when the digital crowd appears under the person who only wished to express their thoughts. When the post was designed for resolving some conflict, on its background will obviously arise new conflict. These are unavoidable things on social media because people do not care about the finding out the truth. They only want to express themselves and do not want to hear others opinions and evaluate them critically. Especially, situations occur when discussing social or political issues. However, the scientific assumption is not an exception to the rule. The texts of various content suffer from the unreasonable negative thoughts when they are posted on social media.

Negative arguments are reasonable because posts can be of the different character and can contain offensive things concerning races, genders, social status, and other minor concepts. However, the negative comments under even such posts can abuse or hurt someone. The main reason for such behavior online can be explained by the fact that “ Online, people can say very hurtful things because they don’t see the reaction, or how it affects someone” (Bilton par. 21). Unfortunately, the empathy which is present in the face-to-face conversation is neglected when arguing online. It is necessary to remember this fact and always try to avoid being committed in negative online discussions.

There are many ways to avoid the negative influence of arguing in social media. Everything depends on the person and their realization on how useless online arguments are. One of the editors of The New Yorker publishing wrote that “ The rule about engaging is that you should never engage” (Bilton par. 11). There are other ways for how to express one’s concerns. It is better to provide disputes out of the public eyes. One of the best ways is writing an email. In such a way, only two persons will be engaged in the discussion and will be of a cool character. People should be interested in their personal time saving because arguing on social media is very time consuming and what is a pity, it cannot lead to any positive result (Swain par. 4). Moreover, negative types of conversations increase the level of stress. Some people will agree that there is enough stress in life besides negative comments. That is why it is better to eliminate stress as much as possible.

The Internet is, unfortunately, lack of the respect between people. The main reason for this is the lack of realization that all the people cannot be the same (Swain par. 5). Different people have different meanings, and it is quite reasonable. The reasonable arguments have to lead to many scientific discoveries. Such discoveries are hard to be made when arguing on the social media. As Swain underlined (par. 11), “ experts do not argue on social media. ” For the sober arguments, it is better to use specialized forums where all the users aware of the topic and have enough background for expressing reasonable thoughts. It is the best way to provide conversation where no trolls are present. Also, as it was noted above, people react easier on the video material. That is why the possible solution would be to express one’s thoughts when recording them on video. Then, the psychology or the viewers will not generate such many negative responses or incompetent meanings which often do not concern the topic which is discussed.

Conversations and arguments in social media will increase because that popularity of social media platforms as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram is continuously growing, replacing at the same time the scientifically-based platforms for discussions. That is why it is necessary to be careful when providing debates on social media. It is better to avoid them, but if they are, it is essential to remain restrained and try to respect others thoughts and meanings. Also, it is necessary to accept that trolls will always exist and it is better to differentiate them and not pay attention to their unreasonable statements.