Blocking Comments

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People often don’t post on social media for fear of the mob. A helpful way to manage that risk comes from venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

Andreessen has a policy he calls “one tweet follow, one tweet block.”

It means he is quick to follow someone based on one clever post, but just as fast to unfollow or block anyone he experiences as thoughtless, angry or hateful.

He doesn’t overthink it, he told David Perell on the How I Write podcast.

I didn’t understand the concept until I started writing online frequently.

It’s the only way to participate while reducing the risk of undesired conflict.

The key to adopting the strategy is to understand that you are under no obligation to any of the people who read, follow or comment on your posts.

It’s your post and your feed and that means that you can change your mind about something you write. You can edit or revise a piece, or even delete it.

If people post comments, you have no obligation to respond.

And if you experience those comments as aggressive or hostile, you can delete them and block the people.

It’s your post and your feed and your life.

Social media can connect you with people all over the world.

And it can be enlightening to elicit disagreements or debate issues.

I compare it to riding the subway in New York City. Sometimes when you board the train there is a hostile person yelling at everyone. People tend to switch cars at the next station. You don’t have to just sit there.

A person commented on one of my posts recently and it felt personal, so I deleted it. The person posted again, calling me out for deleting the comment. She accused me of being a journalist and told me to “Do Better!”

I deleted that comment and blocked the person.

Whatever fight that person was seeking, I wasn’t interested.

I switched subway cars.

There is an surplus of anger on social media. I encourage people not to contribute. They also don’t have to abide the anger either.

My advice for people who read something they don’t like is don’t respond in haste. Wait to calm down. Ask yourself, how you would behave in real life?

Warren Buffett said he learned a lesson from former media mogul Thomas Murphy.

According to David Senra’s Founders podcast, Murphy told Buffett: “You can always tell someone to go to Hell tomorrow.”

BRIEF OBSERVATIONS

JURY & JUDGE: Suze’s post was so clear and so direct

QUITTING: It’s a reality that sometimes people are driven off social media.

PEARLS FROM PEARLMAN: Phil is a friend of mine. We met for coffee in a food court in Manhattan. I talked about social media. He talked about mental and physical health. It was a fantastic conversation.

BROKE & BAD: There are so many stories like this and I’m here for all of them!

ESCAPING THE ZOO: “Throwing rocks at a despised orangutan rival.”