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| Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash |
And then you see a reply on the post the person made. Someone says something to the effect of:
That [said interesting topic] is so stupid. I hate [said interesting thing]. Anybody who thinks it's cool should go jump off a cliff.
Wow! People get worked up about things on the internet. They love to hate. But let's not focus on them, shall we?
What do you do in this situation? Do you respond? Reason with them that their view is flawed?
First, that response lacks constructive criticism. It simply says negative things without giving any reason why. It's there to instigate a reaction more than anything else.
Second, why would you want to feed that negativity with a reply that will most likely generate an even more negative reply from the individual.
The best response is actually no response at all. Yes #besilent is the key here. If you remove the fuel from the spark in that post, you help snuff out the anger, negativity and hate.
What if the post had been constructive? Perhaps it said some like this:
That [said interesting topic] didn't grab my attention because the story has been done a lot of other times before. I tend to not be interested in that type of [said interesting thing]. I can see how others might have enjoyed it though.
Well, then, it's a whole new ballgame. This is someone interested in being a part of the conversation, rather than a force against it.
Next time you stumble across something like the former happening, remember that you can #besilent. In fact, it might be exactly what keeps the conversation positive.
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