How to Avoid Conflicts About Political Topics on Social Media

Annotation

Klare Heston How to Avoid Conflicts About Political Topics on Social Media.The article discusses methods to avoid conflicts on a political topic in social networks.

Many people use social media as a way to share their political views and take political action. In several instances, this activity can be positive and encouraging. It can promote open dialogue and expand social networks. However, in some cases political content posted on social medial can create disagreements, hostility, and conflict. You can post political content without conflict if you are selective in what you post, remain neutral about political issues, and handle potential conflict before it erupts.

Posting Political Content without Conflict

Limit your visibility

One way that you can avoid conflicts about political issues is to set your privacy settings so that only people you approve can see your posts. Limiting your visibility will prevent people that might disagree with your political opinions from seeing your posts. If they can’t see them then they can’t respond to them or create conflict.

• On Facebook, go to your account settings and select ‘privacy.’ Select the desired options for who can see your posts and profile information.
• If you are using Instagram, go to settings and select your desired privacy settings. For example, you can select who sees your posts, who can respond, as well as block specific people from seeing your posts.
• Snapchat allows you to select whether everyone sees your post or only specific people each time you post something.
• Review your privacy options in other social media app settings like Tumblr, Twitter, and Pinterest to limit your visibility.

Check your facts

One thing that internet trolls look for are posts that contain incorrect information presented as a fact. They often ridicule, share, and leave comments that might create conflict when they find something inaccurate in a post. If you are posting something as a fact, check with various reputable sources to make sure that your information is correct before posting it.

• If you are sharing a news report make sure that you check the original source and that the source is reliable.
• If something is your opinion and not a fact, then you might want to say something like, In my opinion or I think.
• If you are reposting something that someone else posted, you can mention that your content is a repost. You can say, This is a repost that I liked.

Use humor

Humor is always good at reducing tension and preventing conflict from popping up. In, fact nearly half of people that view political posts view humorous pics, videos, and content. If you want to post political content without causing conflict, consider posting things that are comical.

• Instead of directly posting your opinion, try to find a meme or video that represents how you feel.
• Remember that not everything is funny to everyone. Avoid posts making fun of others’ race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender.

Remaining Neutral about Political Issues

Be selective in who and what you follow

If you accept all friend requests and follow everyone that requests it, you are bound to see something political on your timeline that upsets you. One way that you can avoid conflict about political topics on social media is to only follow people and topics that interest you and align with your values.

• Avoid following organizations, groups, or pages with controversial names. For example, the group ‘Political Protesters’ might not be very neutral.
• It’s okay to unfollow or block certain friends if you know you can’t avoid getting into a conflict with them about political topics.

Know who you’re friending

Before you accept friend or follow requests, make sure that you actually know the person making the request. If you know the person, you will have some idea of whether they might post political content that’s controversial.

• Visit their page or profile, if possible, to get a sense of them as a person.
• Be wary of accounts that were recently created, have vague or no bio/profile information, and no pictures or generic pictures.
• Some social networking apps allow you to temporarily hide certain users or content from your timeline.

Resist posting controversial political content

Even though you may have political opinions you want to express, you may want to reconsider doing it through social media. If you don’t post anything that might be controversial, it’s much less likely that you will have a conflict about political topics.

• Post content about neutral topics like your personal experiences and memories. For example, you might post pictures from your recent vacation.
• This includes reposting or sharing political content that other people have posted. If you really want to share it, then do so in a private message.
• If you want to share something that makes a strong political statement with someone who you are certain would appreciate it, then consider sending an email directly to that person.

Post neutral political comments

If you want to post political content, you can if you make sure that your posts aren’t controversial. Try to post political content that is neutral, balanced, and fair in order to avoid creating conflict.

• For example, instead of posting something judging a political party or movement, you could post something encouraging people to be politically active in general.
• Or, for instance, instead of posting a video condemning a political opinion, post a balanced commentary about the issue.

Handling Potential Conflict

Avoid responding immediately

There may be times that you see a political post that upsets you. Or, perhaps, something you post causes someone to respond critically or even with hostility. If this occurs, take a few moments to calm down before you respond. This small break will give you the chance to think about the appropriate way to respond without creating more conflict.

• You could say something to create conflict by responding to a post or comment when you are upset.
• If you need to express yourself, write what you would comment in your journal or an email to yourself.

Address the issue privately

If someone is trying to argue with you online about political topics you may be able to avoid a conflict if you talk to them in private. Let them know that you don’t want to argue publicly or privately about political issues.

• You might say, I know we all have our opinion but I don’t want to argue with you about this topic. I respect your opinion, please respect mine.
• Or, you might say, We can disagree with one another, but let’s do it respectfully.

Delete the post

If you’ve posted political content and it’s causing controversy then you should consider deleting the post before it creates greater conflict. Most websites and apps make it easy to remove content that has been posted. Usually you can click ‘help’ and find instructions for removing a comment.

• If it's something you posted on Facebook you can click the X in the top right corner of the post and press Remove Post.
• Your Snapchat posts are automatically deleted after 24 hours.
• You can delete Instagram comments by tapping the comment and then holding it. A trash icon will appear in the top right corner.