My private social media accounts were a mess. I made a mistake, very early on, when I opened my Facebook account back in 2009. I decided to be one of those folks who loved to foray into political discussions and let myself get worked up over what people say and think online. It was a slippery slope and, boy, did I really slide all the way down. A decade of maturing, evolving, changing my opinion did nothing to help my cause. I was called a hypocrite by members of my former political party, lost customers of my jewelry business, etc. No matter what I said I alienated half my friends/customer base.
When I opened my Twitter account I decided to stay neutral, as much as possible. My philosophy is 'believe what you want but be kind to others.' Sure, I still occasionally get sucked into arguments but I try to keep it away from my author page. Unfortunately, I can't refrain from liking certain posts and even that comes around to bite me in the rear.
It's incredibly hard to find a middle ground. Someone will always read into your posts and find something they think is a clue about how you feel and decide to take you down a peg or two over it. Even IF you somehow find that perfect balance on your account you will then be accused of being apathetic and uncaring about what goes on in the world around you. There is no winning this war.
This isn't just limited to politics, either. Social media has devolved to the point where any person will eventually find themselves crucified over any opinion they hold - no matter how trivial. I have seen people dog pile on someone who liked pineapple on their pizza until the poor fruit lover deleted their account. It's maddening, and even more so for any of us that are attempting to hold a public persona. It makes my daily interactions on Twitter feel like tip-toeing through a minefield. I will go online with an intent to be supportive and build someone up and then live in anxiety about an impending take down coming my way.
The last straw for me on Facebook involved a crime that happened in the town that I lived in. A friend tagged me in a news story about it and someone who was involved with the parties involved in a suspicious murder/suicide decided that I must know something and started threatening to kill my family via Facebook Messenger. (Dude isn't very bright, obviously.) I literally did nothing other than have my name tagged in a comment by a friend.
So, fellow social media users, don't feel alone if you find yourself struggling with that unattainable balance for your public persona. There are always going to be people out there who love to take you down. They are miserable human beings (or bots) who just want the rest of the world to feel as hollow and empty as they are. Don't waste your time on it. It's not healthy. My advice, from a decade of personal experience and learning from doing it the wrong way for a long time: Block them the moment they attack. Don't respond, don't feed their troll behavior even one syllable of retort. Just block and move on. Ignoring them will gnaw at you for a while, passing up an opportunity to set them in their place but, to a troll, not being acknowledged is a fate worse than death.
Don't feel like a failure if you slip up and lose your appearance of neutrality online, just pick up and move on. Accept that eventually some sad person is going to target you for harassment. How you respond will make the difference between keeping your page a positive place or not. Good luck.
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