Whenever I see a comment on social media that I think is wrong, I feel the need to correct it. These arguments can go on for days, even weeks, and if I don’t win the argument, I get overly fixated on it, wondering where I went wrong and so on.
Don’t bother. Most people don’t care about facts, they just want their existing beliefs to be reinforced. You will not sway them, only waste time. They may even be intentionally posting incorrect information to troll or mislead. Don’t give them the time.
Can’t argue with people on social media if you’re not on social media.
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I only post on Lemmy and I don’t do a lot of arguing because it leads to beatdowns. Either I get beatdowns from idiots or I get a well-deserved beatdown because I’m the idiot. Get enough beatdowns and you too will tire of it - maybe you are now! Maybe this is a cry for help!
Self discipline.
Once I learned the skill of purposely removing myself from certain online things…world of Warcraft and social media arguing were two big ones…I got a lot of my life back.
It really just comes down to self discipline and self control, which are necessary to learn if you want to actually mature and grow up.
Edit: you could also consider it the art of learning boundaries.
There are two rules to happiness.
Rule1: Never say everything you know.
I don’t. I use social media as an outlet for my contrarianism so I don’t do it at home
I find it helps immensely to not be on social media to begin with.
Ironic
Eventually you learn that its not worth it.
90% of the time, people aren’t arguing in good faith. You can only hear another variant of the cosmological argument so many times before you realize that arguing is pointless
This, plus it helps to keep in mind that it’s not your responsibility to educate people even if they’re objectively wrong. Nor is it your responsibility to change the mind of people with garbage opinions.
When someone is argumentative, they are rarely after an actual conversation, or even a debate. They’re after an interaction they can win.
They are not entitled to your engagement.
Whenever I see a comment on social media that I think is wrong, I feel the need to correct it.
I don’t argue with people who are wrong. I point out where they are wrong, and why, for the sake of passers-by who may need more complete information, because most people are lurkers, and most people tend to believe what’s typed on the internet without much further question.
Yeah, I tend to reply for lurkers, not to change the OPs mind.
Lurkers who haven’t entered a dog in the fight are more likely to be convinced than someone already wound up and swinging. As they read, they are more open, much as I am when I lurk.
This is also why I don’t necessarily mind “fake” posts. The original situation in the post might be fake, but the discussion from people responding does tend to have good or interesting responses in varying levels of nuance.
Leave all meta products; they are build in a way that arguing is promoted. Only reply once to a post; never twice, tell you opinion and stop.
But actually the big thing that helped me was sitting down and assessing why I wanted to correct this stuff. It never gave me any satisfaction, it never lead to anything I liked, and a good deal of it was likely venting trauma from being talked down to all my life. Once I put it together it just kind of stopped happening.
you don’t have a problem with stopping the argument. you have a problem with the desire to always be right. you’re compensating for a lack of recognition in your skills and intelligence in real life.
accept that you will never get that recognition and you will stop needing to be right.
I know this, because I was this.
next time you see something that someone said is wrong, just high five them and move on.
Ouch that hits hard. I’m going to need some extra info on how to accept this.
for me it was accepting that my experience and opinions don’t matter to an individual, but they can make a difference when shared for a solution to a problem that was expressed.
this whole chain is actually a really good example of this process in motion.
I’m not expressing my experience or opinion as the answer, but sharing my perspective instead. I’m not right, but my experience may help others solve their problem on their own.
i usually engage briefly so that others can see there is pushback, because i know most people are lurkers and it is important to me that there are both sides represented. but i learned when they respond in bad faith i can just disengage and either block or move on. i listen to my body’s reactions and try to leave when i feel myself getting agitated. it works for me :)
oh i usually start typing something and realize it’s
That’s not an argument.
Yes it is. That’ll be five pounds.
Yes it is.
