people on the internet who go out of their way to argue
What is it that goes through the minds of people that compels them to log on to the internet and just keep... on... arguing? Desperate to get the last word in, apparently incapable of reflecting on their own compulsion to try to lecture others
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I've had very little experience with trolls (though I did suffer through a few LJ Flamewars back in the day) but, in general, I tend to engage initially and if it's someone clearly intent on argument for argument's sake, I back off.
Threads, Meta's version of microblogging, has added a really interesting feature: you can mute someone's response and they never get notified. So you can just leave the comment there, and they go away thinking they had the last word, when in fact nobody can see their interaction with you except yourself. You can also block them after muting - which then gives you the option to leave the last word and then stop them from responding. These features have turned Threads into a far more pleasant place than Twitter.
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I imagine trolls who would be annoyed at someone deleting their comment may also be pathological enough to create a burner account to check up on their main account getting shadow banned. But you're right that it probably discourages a more casual abuser, or someone who needlessly picked a fight without necessarily having troll-like intentions at the outset.
On the other hand, I do sometimes feel like "muting" comments in this way is just as unproductive as deleting them, since then you're basically policing who is allowed to speak. If you really don't want open commentary on stuff you make available publicly, then surely it would be better to just have a blanket no open comments policy? Newspapers (used to) do this and it made for a much higher standard of discusson when all we got was a curated letters page. For game reviews on Steam, the default checkbox is already "do not allow comments on this review", so I chose to open myself up to abuse by trusting people not to be assholes. Alas, it seems if you go against the "popular" ( ... )
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since then you're basically policing who is allowed to speak
I think this probably changes from person to person. Some people might enjoy intelligent argument and leave up contrary opinions, while others will want a place with zero conflict - I think it's nice that it leaves it up to the user to decide what their space will be like. For myself, if I get intollerant, hate-filled stuff, it's an immediate mute and block; but if it's someone with a new perspective, wishing to engage in an idea, expressed in a polite way, I leave it up.
Threads does have a blanket no-comments option as well, so only people followed can respond. I think a lot of new users don't know this and so have left themselves open to trolls (but then the muting/blocking option comes in handy.) Someone posted today a nice summary of how different it is from Twitter:
"Twitter blocks still leave up existing direct replies to our posts and allow trolls to continue replying to other people in the thread. Threads, however, completely hides the troll's reply thread including ( ... )
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You have a lot of faith in Facebook! I consider them amongst the worst of the bunch as far as violating people's privacy and evil anti-competitive practices go. I know i should probably suck it up and get over it because pretty much all social events in Taiwan are organized through Facebook or Instagram, but sometime maybe about 10 years ago - probably around the time they bought WhatsApp - i just lost any hope they wouldn't be scumbags, and Cambridge Analytica/Brexit/Trump/Myanmar/Canadian news/etc just keep reinforcing what a bunch of assholes they all are. And yet... I still have the Facebook account in case I for some reason need to get in touch with people I knew years ago, plus a WhatsApp to talk to dad. Ugh, I'm part of the problem...
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Ugh! I see some of the arguers (mostly when I do social media for Bike Ottawa) and it makes me a little nuts. I end up reporting some for harassment, blocking some, and muting others so they can scream into the void without me ever having to deal with them. But really, I just want to yeet them all into the sun.
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I have a friend who said she stopped talking movies with me because I ended up hating so many movies she loved... and for her, it was too hard to hear all the specific and detailed ways I did not like something. She's one of those people who loves those boxy rom-coms where handsome prestigious boy belittles/stalks/threatens beautiful-but-wears-glasses girl until they fall in love.
When I call those movies stupid, she is offended because she thinks I called *her* stupid for liking it... even though I did not explicitly do that, and I did not mean to imply that... I meant only... *I* think *that movie* was "stupid".
I started noticing it when she would want to have these long drawn out arguments over the details of some movie as she tries to convince me it was beautiful or funny or romantic or perfect or whatever... and I don't try to convince her of anything except... I didn't like it, and I'm not worried about it... but I'm glad SHE liked it... and don't mind learning what she liked about it, even if I couldn't agree.
We can talk it ( ... )
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This is a great comment that i wanted to respond to because on one hand i was nodding along with it vigorously and on other hand i was like "well, but..." - which is what makes it so great!
For me, also, i enjoy hearing other people's views on stuff that i liked - or didn't like - and i don't think it should impact my appreciation for (or hatred of) the thing. We're different people with different tastes and different backgrounds, so of course we experience entertainment differently! On the other hand, i can also understand the exhaustion of having something that you really love constantly get trashed by other people.
An example, for me, was i used to read (but not participate in) a Reddit forum about professional wrestling because it gave the kind of behind-the-scenes scoops and gossip that ONTD does for more mainstream celeb news. But i realized after a while that i was not enjoying it at all because the fandom was constantly complaining about the product, and every time i watched a show and was excited about some angle i'd go ( ... )
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That's unfortunate and tiring.
I agree that life is better without social media. I realize that I don't consider LJ "social media" though...
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