I don't think bullying people is very convincing

Maybe don't do the whole bullying people online thing and do something less counterproductive

Shibetoshi Nakamoto @BillyM2k

convince people to see things your way, don't bully them into silence and submission. doing that just causes resentment and reduces your ability to actually make positive change.

I’m on Twitter a lot (too much), because I’m an addict, thanks to all the dopamine that it provides when you’re a large account. And for the most part, it’s fun - in my case, I write something stupid while on the toilet, and I get a bunch of bots and randos replying to it, and I get some nice brain chemicals telling me that I did something important… Even though I didn’t really accomplish anything.

But, it can also be excessively annoying, and a lot of this has to do with the tweet I quoted here - a lot of people try really hard to make it an unpleasant place to say anything that goes against anything they might think. Most of the time, the people who do this misread the tweet in the first place and comment on something that they invented in their head, or put you in a weird stereotypical bucket based on a few characters, and yell at that invention. Sometimes they actually understand your tweet and just want to be a poop butt. Whatever the case is, I see this bullying behavior constantly. Like, all the time. And if you’re on Twitter, I’m sure you see it too. Or maybe you do it, without thinking too hard about it.

The location where most tweets are made - Photo by 99.films on Unsplash

So while this may feel good at the time, I make tweets like this to express how incredibly counterproductive I believe it is. Let’s do a little exercise:

1. Imagine you are making a dumb tweet

Let’s say you want to make a tweet that says: “I like oranges.” It’s not a very engaging tweet, but you did the Twitter thing. Good job.

2. Imagine you read a bunch of obnoxious responses

Now, you want that sweet dopamine hit from putting your thoughts out there, so you read what people are saying. But, oh no! They aren’t fun. They are like the following:

Annoying Guy 1: Oranges suck. You probably like all things orange and that’s the color of a jumpsuit, you scammer.

Annoying Guy 2: Why aren’t you talking about apples? Don’t you care about them?

Annoying Guy 3: Imagine liking oranges and tweeting about them. Loser.

3. What was accomplished?

Now, do you think differently about oranges? No. You still like oranges. But you might think, “Well, I guess this is a sore subject for a lot of people for some stupid reason, so I guess I won’t tweet about it.” And the bullies think, SUCCESS. They aren’t talking about oranges anymore. I convinced them to shut up! I rule!

But they didn’t accomplish anything, other than making you think, boy, all those people are really obnoxious. I don’t really want to be associated with any of them. And you feel more detached to whatever they stand for.

So really, all that was actually accomplished was the bully made you dislike them and less likely to listen to them, or people like them. And that makes it so, if they have anything productive and good they actually want to output, it’s much more likely to fall on deaf ears.

I understand the urge to pick up dopamine hits from other angry people, making bullying tweets when someone is out of pocket. Everyone on Twitter has done this to some extent. I think though, it would be nice to see online culture get away from this behavior and evolve into something a little more convincing.

• If you want to change someone’s mind, try understanding the opposing perspective.

• If you just want to vent, just recognize that it’s generally counterproductive.

• If you want to look like the good guy and get internet points, as many of us do but won’t admit publicly, really the best way to do that is to take the higher road. Grandstanding only gets points with fellow counterproductive folks. It feels good, but it’s overall bad for everyone, yourself included.