8-bit common-sense wisdom to help your bytes on social media

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In Luc Besson's vastly underrated film, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, there is an elaborate action sequence involving a Big Market, a hyper-dimensional mall where tourists strap on virtual reality (VR) gear and wander around in a desert, while virtually experiencing a million shops to buy assorted things from!

Social media offers a similar illusion - you think you are alone in your office cubicle when you send that tweet, but that's only because you aren't wearing your VR gear. If you were, you'd see the 2,500 followers you have on Twitter standing all around you, doing various things and a few thousand more people—complete strangers—who could stumble on what you tweet!

(1) You are NOT talking into a vacuum, on social media

That's the first thing to remember when you are on social media, which could be a significant part of the day, going by latest figures - according to Global Web Index, the average time spent by Indians every day on social media is 2 hours and 26 minutes! This is just on social media, remember - it doesn't include the time you spend playing Candy Crush Saga.

Dress smartly, have a good handwriting, get your grammar right, know your table manners, learn public speaking, focus on your body language... these have always been told and taught to us, in various ways. But because social media was free—and fun—nobody taught us what to do—and not to do—on it and how to go about it. So, start with the obvious - what you say on social media has/have real-world consequences. It does feel like you are talking into a vacuum because there’s no one around physically, but that’s just an illusion. Start by considering the fact that despite the reactions not being physical, there are repercussions.

(2) Freedom of thought, before freedom of expression

Next, 'the heat of the moment' could be 100X worse online. Imagine how you would react in 'the heat of the moment' offline - you are in the middle of something, with a few people around you (perhaps known to you). Someone says something, you don't like it and you react. You perhaps shout, swear and abuse. It could get physical, someone else mediates and you all cool down.

On social media, you have 2 choices - one, you could behave exactly the same way as you did offline. But there's no physical immediacy for someone to mediate. Your words (anger, outburst, abuse, swearing) all are permanently etched in the digital space, for even random strangers to read, evaluate and judge you, without context, for the rest of humanity's existence. (Yes, screenshots retain even deleted messages!).

The other choice - you wear your VR gear and think before you utter anything in the heat of the moment. You step back and consider the potential of what you are about to say, calmly. Remember John F. Kennedy's quote in this regard: "We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought". Let your actions be guided by freedom of thought, and not just freedom of expression.

(3) Consider people and organizations, before you broadcast

Third, consider dependencies. The 2 dependencies that I always ask people to look out for are individuals and organizations. Do you personally know someone or some organization which may be affected by what you are about to say? In a professional context, it could be people who you have worked with, in the past, in the present... or organizations that you have worked with or for. It could even be a competing organization. If you arrive at someone, or some organization, on a quick thought, consider how you are framing your post, wherever you are about to post it. And how it may affect them. 

(4) Mind your tone

That's the 4th rule: tone. What is the tone of what you are about to say online? Is the tone positive? Or negative? Or neutral? Perhaps it ends in an incendiary manner. Or sarcastic. Or, it attacks a specific person. In particular, if it is negative, do consider the facts behind your words. Are there any, in case you need to justify your negativity later when questioned? Or, if it is your opinion, do you have any basis to arrive at that negative view? If you do not, you may want to reconsider the very purpose of sharing it online.

(5) It’s only words… and words are all you have…

An incidental rule is around words. Not everyone’s a master of words. The simplest check for use of appropriate words is by reading it aloud - consciously. Particularly for those with a negative edge. When you read it aloud, you’d hear something that was only playing inside your head. From the outside, it’d feel like someone is saying that to you. Try it!

(6) Be extreme cautious

The 6th rule, related to tone and words, is extremes. Saying something was good enough, or decent enough, doesn't evoke any reaction and hence, seems pointless to even say, these days online. But it is not pointless, after all - it makes perfect sense to not resort to extremes when commenting on things, online, particularly if you have not thought through the reasons for your extreme reaction, particularly the negative extreme (positive extremes do not seem to matter online, thankfully). For instance, when commenting on potential hot-button topics like Government and politics, use of extremes in words (terrible, deplorable etc.) could be done with caution and with a sense of balance (unfair, unconstitutional etc.). And to retain extremes only in extreme cases when the situation completely justifies it.

(7) ad hominem ad nauseum

The next logical consideration is people vs. views they hold. One view does not make them who they are. We are all made of many, many views, perspectives and opinions. Stereotyping people based on one or few opinions makes us as culpable as the social media platforms that judge us based on our posts and serve us advertisements! They could at least claim to be using 'big data', we have just a few random comments to arrive at our myopic conclusions. This includes using words like 'Bhakt', whether we think it is justified, in our minds, or not. Such ad hominem comments further weaken our side in an argument 

(8) Internal bullshit detector

The final rule is pertinent in this age of rampant fake news. How good is your internal bullshit detector? You need to have one, and its battery needs to be fully charged, always. The simple effort of the internal bullshit detector is to answer the question, 'Am I convinced this is true?'. It may sound alarmist, but trust nothing, and question everything. The effort is just a search away, in most cases, but it would help you to be sure of what you are saying online.

One tl;dr conclusion of this article is, 'Be considerate and thoughtful, when on social media'. It does sound like a religious scripture.

So, the other tl;dr version: 'When on social media, behave like the world is watching you'. Because it is!

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An edited version of this article appeared in the Sunday Magazine edition of The Economic Times, on June 17, 2018.