I see this pattern all the time.
To avoid it, once you have said what you want to say, it is best to not get drawn down the tangential paths that others open up. As philosopher of science Karl Popper said, “It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood”. Trying to clear up the misunderstandings of people who are determined to go in a particular direction just leads to an endless rabbit hole.
And not just on social media!
Still waiting for “antisocial media” because I’d be all over that.
Trying to clear up the misunderstandings of people who are determined to go in a particular direction just leads to an endless rabbit hole.
They aren’t misunderstandings, though. They’re deliberate misconstrual therefore I ignore them as dishonest.
‘Still waiting for “antisocial media” because I’d be all over that.’
It’s called a book. I have hundreds.
Kind of funny isnt it? Social media really isnt very social at all. I think antisocial media has already been invented, its just misnamed is all.
(meta)
I’m loving all the people interacting on the internet with bloggers and commenters they’ve never met discussing how much they hate social media. Lol.
(/meta)
It’s not that complicated.
Communication media come in the form of:
one to one;
one to many;
many to one; and
many to many.
That last one is to what that which is called social media refers, though (obviously) any communication medium is perforce social.
Salient thing is, in this the electronic age, that it’s both synchronous and asynchronous, and that the propagation delay is negligible.
—
I did wait, but here it is: “drunk drivers are the worst” quite literally implies nobody else is worse.
Which brings me to Marcus’ claim:
Which is literally implying nobody misunderstands anybody.
I mean, I know; natural language employs idiom and hyperbole and metaphor and whatnot… but still, complaining that people take you literally is a pretty feeble excuse.
In my estimation, anyway.
(I’m quite happy to be taken literally, but then, I do like to play with language)
Silentbob @#5,
I’ve wondered in the past whether a blog can be categorized as ‘social media’. In the sense that people exchange ideas in public, it is. On the other hand, it moves at a much slower pace, spreads far less quickly, and the blogger has a level of editorial control over what can be said that makes it different.
@6: you missed out “none to none”.
(Writer is on autopilot, no one is really listening anyway. Quite a lot of political communication falls under that. Fair amount of corporate PR too.)