Hi everyone, this is Mondays with Mike, a weekly video series where I answer questions from people like you. Here’s this week’s question.
Dear Mike, I recently got sucked into a Facebook war. This friend posted something that just infuriated me. It wasn’t true, it was malicious and it was stated as if it were a fact. The person who posted it is actually a friend, I mean a real friend – a person I hang out with and actually like. I unwisely lit up her Facebook feed on that post. I allowed my anger to get the better of me and now my friend is mad at me. To be honest, she should be. I am going to apologize, etc., and act like a grown up – I know that’s what you’re going to tell me to do, but my question is how do I do a better job of not getting sucked into social media drama?
You wanna hear this answer? This is the easiest Mondays with Mike answer I’ve ever had.
Don’t. Hit. Post.
Look, if you are just jonesin’, you know you’re looking for Johnny’s labrador retriever and you saw it running down Highway 86 – post that.
Let me tell you about a meme I saw the other day on Facebook. It was hilarious. I’m not going to use the exact language because I don’t want to offend anybody but it was a picture of a unicorn. And it said “This is Ted. He’s a unicorn. He changes opinion by reading a Facebook post. Ted doesn’t exist. You’re an idiot.”
So here’s the thing. No opinion was ever changed on social media! So don’t hit post. If you have to say something about it, then type it out and delete it. Don’t hit post.
I made a big mistake one time when there was a mass shooting. I said “Before we get into a debate about it, can we just grieve the families? Let the bodies be identified, and then we can debate guns. Just for today, just for the 24 hours between the time the shooting happened and the time the families were notified could we just focus on the tragedy and the people? And then open the floodgates!” I thought it was a well-intentioned post, at least it was a well-intentioned post, but I got blistered on Facebook.
I stay away now from politics, I stay away from religion, any highly controversial topic as much as possible. Because my opinion isn’t going to change anybody else’s opinion, and it’s just like spitting in the wind. It’s going to come back in your face eventually and it isn’t going to work out. So don’t hit post. That’s my answer. And I’m going to go to my deathbed with that answer.
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