In a polarising age, people are understandably keen to show their indignation publicly. But sharing even content you don’t agree with gives it oxygen, drives eyeballs to it, and doubtless fuels the writer’s ego. Is it time we turned the other digital cheek?
I have run social media training sessions for the best part of a decade. One of the absolute basics we cover in community management is don’t feed the trolls! Don’t dignify tweets, comments that are designed to harm – as opposed to legitimate queries or comments – with a response.
Yet many people commit this error every day – giving oxygen to stories and opinions that they find abhorrent with an RT – [INSERT INDIGNANT COMMENT HERE WITH APPROPRIATE EMOJI]
The writer pressed the trigger buttons. Twitter took the bait.
Every time they share that story or opinion it increases the potential for that writer’s reach. We’re doing their viral work for them.
Sure, the majority of engagements might be negative but the publisher will look at the stats and see an article that drew thousands of views – especially from social media. Big numbers to show advertisers. They commission that writer to do another piece, or the tweeter feels empowered because somewhere they’ll find keyboard warriors to back them up.
And even if they don’t, they can claim a witch hunt.
Meanwhile, we feel we’ve done our part – we’ve called out the perpetrator, we’ve distanced ourselves from them. We’ve reassured ourselves we’re good people and we’ve demonstrated to our audience where they probably already knew that we stand.
And so, the vicious cycle continues… We get increasingly riled and the gap widens. Perspective is lost in bias. No one’s mind is changed. Social media is not the place for thorough discussion.
In my 24,000+ tweets in the last 11 years, I am as guilty as anyone but making a conscious effort to change.
What’s the answer?
I work in PR, so I can’t present a problem without a solution. Simple: ignore it. Roll eyes, scroll screen. Starve it of oxygen.
We go on about how social media is bad for mental health, so is it time we just ignored the bait and focussed on the good stuff?
Is it time to turn the digital cheek?