Knowing the answer to What Would You Do can be difficult
We all have opinions. Some are stronger than others; others, vocalize their opinions louder than others; and yet most, will never change their opinion no matter what the voice of reason/opposition has to say. Playing off the television show, I ask, what would you do?
Here is the situation:
Recently, I saw a post from a Facebook connection. It was a video and social commentary on a rather sensitive topic. What I saw in the video was a bit different than what the poster had expressed in the written comment. I began to write my response to the post about 5 different times. Eventually, I ended up not typing anything.
Each time I would start thinking I was taking a different tact, but ended up deleting the response because the written word and a post is forever. It is so much more difficult to know the tone and intent of a comment when written than when you are speaking directly to that person because you are able to see the non-verbal communication.
Because of an experience I had years ago on a chat board with trolls who posted to cause a disturbance, I am much more aware of “newbies”, or even someone who has been around a long time, could take the written word out of context and think an innocent comment is a personal attack.
Additionally, I didn’t think that my comment would be taken in the right context as I could be considered on the opposite side of that particular sensitive topic.
Here are some thoughts to help you figure out what you would do:
- Do what I did and let the moment pass. I didn’t feel so strongly about the issue that I felt I had to make the comment.
- Write your comment and let the “battle” begin. Once I posted a bad review in a “What’s happening in ((You name the town))”. My post garnered a great deal of responses and some were just nasty.
- Unfollow the person or shut them out of your feed. ( I have done this before, it can be kind of liberating.)
- Try to send a private message to the person with your opinion so as not to take it public.
- Make a phone call.
Remember, you will probably not change the opinion of the person to whom you are commenting, so is it worth the angst you might feel when the return comments are heated, pointed or vengeful. (I just had a thought that I wouldn’t be writing about this, if the item or the issue were positive, like beautiful flowers or gorgeous scenery.)
What else would you do?
