The following is a little bit of recycled advice from one of my early posts.

Why the advice? To encourage you to 1) Protect your health and well-being (physical/mental/emotional/social); 2) Protect your reputation; 3) Protect your intellectual integrity.

ADOPT THE COUNT-TO-10 RULE. If something someone says on the internet pushes your buttons, do not immediately reply. Instead. Count to ten. And think. If you are still worked up, log out and walk away. Give yourself some physical, mental, and emotional space. Ask yourself whether it is worth writing a reply. If you decide to write a reply, ask someone you trust to vet it BEFORE you post. But ask that person to CHALLENGE your argument; i.e. tell me why I am wrong, whether I am thinking this through clearly, am I misunderstanding something, is my tone appropriate, and so on.

(Actually, counting to 10 is good policy before you reply to ANY post. Particularly on short and rapid-fire platforms like Twitter.)

Categories: Thoughtlets

Tags: advice, emotion, health, integrity, outrage, Philosophy, reputation, social media