How to spot a 'swooper' on social media

It is important for reasonable people to stay on social media - even when they feel discouraged - because otherwise public debate becomes skewered by extreme perspectives. Unfortunately, thoughtful and reasonable people are constantly ‘chased away’ from social media by “the swoopers”.

The swoopers are people who swoop on posts like angry magpies on passers-by.? They are not genuinely interested in debating issues but rather in using the post as an outlet for their own unhappiness and anger.?

5 characteristics of a swooper are:

1.?????? The commenter does not read the post in full. Instead, the person will focus in on one sentence or even one phrase and take it out of context. I suspect they immediately stop reading after seeing that sentence or phrase.?

A good example is a recent post an MP did on cleaning up graffiti, attaching his article on the subject. Some people who commented did not read the article which provided vital context. Instead, they immediately abused him for neglecting bigger issues. In fact, had they read the article, they would have seen that he did in fact address that point clearly. ?They may have still disagreed with him after reading the article, but at least their disagreement would have been better informed.

2.?????? Often, the commenter is not a connection or follower. They have randomly stumbled across the post. I have never had a poor comment from a connection or regular follower. Because the person does not feel any sense of relationship with the poster (however superficial such connections may be on social media) they feel free to write hostile and inflammatory remarks.

3.?????? Similar to point 1, the commenter is triggered by the use of a word or phrase. It doesn’t really matter how the writer expresses the idea, it’s the mere use of a phrase that sets off the person's emotions.?You see this most frequently in posts on gender issues where a particular phrase or term on either men’s or women’s issues will make people erupt (even if the rest of the post is very logical and reasonable).

4.?????? The commenter makes assumptions about the poster. He or she assumes the poster is ‘exactly like me’. That is to say, because the commenter uses social media for an emotional and irrational purpose or in bad faith, the assumption is that everyone does. Such people do not accept the writer could be coming from a place of genuine interest, helpfulness and self-reflection – because this is so far outside their own experience and worldview they cannot comprehend it. ?

5.?????? Similar to point 4, the commenter makes sweeping assumptions about what ‘tribe’ the poster belongs to, without any evidence to justify it. For example when I recently posted on national unity, I had two commenters angrily target me for being a right-wing political operative who was supportive of decisions taken by a foreign country. This is obviously a non-sequitur, as posting an uplifting and unifying post on one’s own country has nothing to do with foreign policy and/or whether you are a political creature (for the record I do not belong to any political party). Yet they still had no hesitation in condemning me as being 'one of them' without any evidence.

When you consider the deep foolishness of all the above assumptions and behaviours, you do wonder how some people manage to navigate life - and other people – at all!

Of course we are all human and make mistakes but most of us do our best to refrain from this type of conduct, in the interests of living harmoniously with others.

I will keep writing about this topic as I sincerely believe it is important this behaviour be clearly discussed, to support the vast majority of reasonable people who suffer from the words of these folk.

For too long, such abrasive characters have been dismissed as trolls or attention-seekers but it is vital to go a little deeper with analysis and be crystal clear about spotlighting the irrational behaviours. ?

Otherwise, the conduct causes tremendous damage to public debate over a long period of time, when taken cumulatively. In fact, often good people are scared to share their views (which is their democratic right) because of the swoopers.

Just like an attack by a magpie, it can take a little while to recover from a swooper but, once you have caught your breath, it is important to get back on the path and keep moving forward!