What Makes Online Debates Difficult for Me

What I think makes arguments/debates online, especially on social media, difficult to do and why I am not fond of engaging in them:

1. Anonymity – Anonymity means the state of being anonymous. Being somewhat incognito has given many the leeway to say just about anything hostile towards another in the name of defending their argument. I see people attacking others for something far from the debate or argument at hand. Instead of attacking your argument, people will attack anything else they dislike about you, say your clothes or the way you speak. Let’s say you don’t like a certain accent. Does the fact that your opponent speaks with this accent that you don’t appreciate discredit their argument or automatically strengthen yours in the process? Certainly not. Nevertheless, you’ll find many attacking that instead and feeling proud while doing it.

Simply check comment sections of trending argument topics to see what I mean; the ability to hide behind a computer or phone while you let your fingers do the talking has given many the boldness to say anything, no matter how insulting, degrading and downright hurtful the said comment is. It’s fairly easy to be sarcastic when you aren’t communicating face-to-face with a human being.

2. Ad hominem-type arguments – These are arguments that focus on a person rather than the argument in question. More often than not, people attack other people’s questionable character traits rather than the argument put forth. Now this can happen unconsciously, especially if one thinks the only thing they need to bring to a debate is passion. Actually, passion is good and important but being passionate does not automatically mean your arguments will be sound. Arguing really well and using rhetoric the way it should be used isn’t an easy feat.

3. Virality – If something is viral and trending, that does not make it true, it only means that it is popular. Supposed popular facts and well-researched facts are two very different things. The former is often a product of social media sites algorithms and mutiple shares while the other is a product of thorough personal research and little to no “hearsay”. There’s a grave misconception we make when we treat everything we read in passing as true and then use that to rebut certain argument points.

4. Lack of voice – Online discourse, and in particular social media discourse lacks the voice of the speaker. It is very easy for someone to misread or misrepresent what another says. For instance, somebody may impose sarcasm or hatred on a comment. Furthermore, simply because a message lacks an emoji, somebody may think it is hostile.

Conclusion

We all have opinions on different matters and we will not always see eye-to-eye. This makes arguments important in that regard because you’ll get to hear what the other side has to say. None of this is straightforward or easy. To me, it just seems like it is even more difficult when people aren’t in close proximity and listening to each other speak. I hope this sparks some thoughts in you.

Grace and peace.