Stories & Writing

Why I Don’t Always Share My Opinion Online

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I don’t always share my opinion online.

A few years ago when I was much newer to blogging and guest posting, I wrote a post that had a bit of a click bait headline. It wasn’t too ‘out there’ but it was certainly designed to be a bit controversial. And it worked. People read it. People commented on it.

Only I found it was of no personal value to me. Why? To me, it only felt like people were interested in the headline and didn’t actually read the article. Yes, I expressed an unpopular opinion and no, I didn’t expect everyone to agree with me. Disagreements are fine. But it felt like no one actually read the article – I acknowledged the inconsistencies in my argument but the article was literally only about me and my life. Not about anyone else’s life. Not about the life of people overseas. My life.

The article was a learning curve for me.

I haven’t written in quite the same way since. Not out of censorship, but out of choosing my audience. I love a good debate. I don’t want to agree with everyone and I don’t want everyone to agree with me. But I do expect that people read and reply intelligently, not just comment with a knee-jerk reaction.

Is that too much to expect online? Is it easier to have a serious and difficult debate in person?

Do you share your opinion online? Have you ever had a bad reaction to your headline? 

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  • Jessica Chapman

    I really don’t understand why people would just read a headline and then comment on a post, it seems like the least intelligent way of sharing an opinion. On the internet there seems to be this myriad of people who seem to enjoy being outraged and angry. Life is way too short for me to continually seek out content that irritates me and to comment on it. So I don’t always share my opinions online either.

    • http://www.26yearsandcounting.com/ 26 Years & Counting

      I tried replying to the comments but I really couldn’t because the only thing I could think of was to say “Did you bleeping read it or not?” So I gave up and called it a lesson!!

  • https://kikiandtea.com/ Tamsin Howse

    This week I’ve seen the fallout of a friend of mine posting her opinion online. It’s not been pleasant.

    I have chosen not to write opinions about things I don’t want people disagreeing with me about. But there seems to be not so much a leap as a tiny step between people disagreeing and people attacking.

    • http://www.26yearsandcounting.com/ 26 Years & Counting

      Disagreements I am totally fine with. But it seems rare for people to be able to disagree using logic or maturity. Or perhaps it was the wrong platform.

  • Monique Fischle

    I don’t always share my opinion online. Not anymore anyway. I’m all for respectful disagreement, but there seem to be many people online who don’t care about being respectful. And some disagreements are conversations best left for in-person interaction. Like T, if there is a subject I don’t want people disagreeing with me about, I wouldn’t write about it.

    • http://www.26yearsandcounting.com/ 26 Years & Counting

      Some things are certainly best said in person – no matter how you write about some topics, the written word can lack the humanity that needs to come through with sensitive topics.

  • Gina Soldano-Herrle

    I don’t like to share my opinion online. Like Jessica said, it seems like a lot of people like being enraged and angry. It’s too stressful of a situation for me personally.

    • http://www.26yearsandcounting.com/ 26 Years & Counting

      I don’t enjoy the stress of it – I always like to make sure I reply to people but sometimes you can’t if they didn’t post something worth replying to, as sad as that is to say.

      • https://kikiandtea.com/ Tamsin Howse

        Sad but so true!

  • http://Carlyfindlay.blogspot.com/ Carly Findlay

    I think of this quote from Martin Luther King Jr.

    I spoke up about an issue I feel strongly about. Readers focused on one or two sentences and believed/made the article about them. And so I was on the receiving end of attacks and disagreement. Not pleasant. But I wont stop.

    • http://www.normalness.com/ NormalNess

      I never believe in being silent over social justice and
      other very important issues. I don’t care if people are uncomfortable with my views on things in society that need to change. I think where I might have gone wrong in this instance was that I was giving my view of how a social issue that’s supposed to impact me, hasn’t. And then everyone seemed to take it as me saying that means the issue doesn’t exist, which I specifically stated was NOT my belief – that people ignored that and got the wrong impression of me was probably what hurt the most.

  • maree Talidu

    I’ve absolutely held back- partly because of my career, partly because I often don’t have the energy to argue, I don’t like confrontation. I admit to sometimes biting my tongue instead of writing exactly what I’m feeling.

    • http://www.normalness.com/ NormalNess

      Careers are totally worthwhile things to hold back. A lot of employers don’t understand that there can be value in writing online.