14 Nov 2016

If the Internet were a real place, it would probably be a pretty dangerous one. Strangers would yell incredibly offensive things at one another. People would talk a lot without listening. And the streets would be lined with brawling teenagers, angry faced emoticons and passive aggressive memes.

Yes, we live in a world where arguing online is a daily occurrence. Someone’s always ridiculing something, then there’s someone else who’s ready to jump in and defend said thing, often straying far, far away from the original point. There are a lot of people being dicks to each other online, which is usually semi entertaining but ultimately a bit sad.

Arguing isn’t necessarily a bad thing to do – it’s actually a good way for people to learn from each other. But wouldn’t it be nice if people could be a little bit more civil to each other?

If you’d like your friends and acquaintances could play a little nicer, check these suggestions for arguing in the Facebook sphere.

Try to keep it positive

If you can acknowledge mutual respect from the outset and then gently disagree on the actual point, you’re going to get a better reaction than if you head in with your fists clenched spitting hate and fury. You’re Facebook “friends” after all.

Stick to the point

If you’re arguing about the price of beer, it’s not helpful to start talking about homophobia. So before you call someone a “fag” because they don’t know the price of a schooner, check yo’self. 

What are you trying to achieve?

Ask yourself, what do I want to get out of this argument? If the answer is I just want to troll some strangers to make them feel stupid… then maybe stick to the comments section of Youtube, where sad people go to tell other people that their taste in music is shit. If the answer is I want to make this other person consider my opinion, and maybe I’ll consider theirs too… then you’ll need to be nice. Telling someone that they are shit is a bad way to make them agree with you.

Kill ideas, not people

Attacking other peoples’ arguments is a normal part of arguing. But you can’t attack the person, or their mum. That’s what mean people do.

Using Evidence?

If you’re talking about a certain idea or article, it’s logical that you would post another article which references the same idea. But you don’t want to be that person who gets in a hectic Facebook fight and then just posts another article as a comment and writes, “this is actually what I think tho”.

Admit when you’re wrong

No one likes doing it, but it goes a long way. You’ve got to concede points when necessary. For the anonymous reader of the Facebook thread, you’ll look a lot cooler if you admit that you were wrong about that thing than if you keep repeating the same argument again and again and again.