nitrogen
Schrödinger's cat
- Nov 5, 2019
- 339
Greetings, motha....ugh.... Sweeties!
Be careful not to hand out your trust too easily to people who openly share their vulnerability. This is an effective tactic of letting themselves be perceived as harmless, transparent, and trustworthy. Remember, as heavily moderated as this forum is and as wonderful as many members are, this is still the internet. Moderators can't get into people's heads; they can only eliminate the most blatant offenses of forum rules. 99.9% of the members' stories and assertions can't be corroborated.
Watch out for certain close-knit groups of prolific posters. The main reason why they're influential is that they make this forum the center of their lives and spend all day writing a sheer number of posts like it's their full-time job. it's understandably natural for them to want to climb up the "corporate ladder" and there will be "office politics," which inevitably involve manipulation, distortion of facts, and power play. Their motivations are most likely benign in nature; but nonetheless, they can lead you by the nose and incite the type of emotional responses they want out of you. Btw, the deceased can't talk or correct statements made by the living and their influence on this site before they CTBed can be taken advantage of.
Many of you experience peer rejection, lack of approval in real life. The reaction scores (loves, hugs, likes, awws, etc) are easily interpreted as gestures of approval and acceptance. It's natural for people to be drawn to those who "quench their thirst." Some members are very generous with handing out the reaction scores. Meanwhile, you'd subconsciously feel an obligation to reciprocate the kindness and warmth. The result of that is you can get passively "won over."
Mob and cliquey behaviors:
Some members support their "buddies" rather than the content of a post. And a lot of times, they do so without even reading the original post.
A manipulation tactic that the mobs frequently deploy is they falsely accuse somebody as being an abuser/bully/troll, so the attackers act like victims and push their opponent to adopt a defensive stance while they can mask their aggression, divert people's attention away from what their opponent wanted to discuss in the first place.
Displacement of concepts is another clever tactic. For example, the overuse and misuse of the word "troll." The strict definition of a troll largely has to do with a poster's intention. Does this person just have unique and different opinions, or does the person enjoy harassing and upsetting people, or seeking attention? The mobs like to label anyone with a contrary view as a troll.
When a thread of controversial topics pops up, the original post might not violate any forum rules. But as a discussion escalates into a fight, the moderators would have to jump in and the thread gets censored. Fights easily break out when people get fired up, and eliciting emotional responses from a mob isn't rocket science, which leaves room for manipulation. The folks who are content with their position in a power structure don't like agitation.
How a mob gathers momentum and amplifies:
The folks express anger at you, make derogatory remarks about your posts without explanation as to why they're upset or present cogent arguments. They "like" each other's posts, bond over attacking you, their personal opinions receive positive reinforcement and validation - that's when you see them get fired up and make more subsequent posts often with nothing new to add. The members who're ambivalent will sit in the stands and watch the fight - some remain ambivalent, some choose the prevailing side and join in.
You may be thinking, the tactics I mentioned above seem so deliberately orchestrated, but most people just write whatever off the top of their head at the time of posting, and people don't have to give an explanation to every single point they make. So am I overthinking and overanalyzing? Maybe. Maybe not.
Manipulation tactics are unintentionally and unconsciously deployed all the time. In one of my other threads about herd mentality, I wrote about studies on how 95% of people follow 5% without realizing it. They unconsciously mimic attitudes, speech styles, non-verbal cues, etc. It's also a fact that people act differently when peer pressure is present.
Mob or herd mentality isn't always bad though. The biggest advantage is to keep you safe. Every now and then, a newbie gets so distraught by hostility from just a single or a few members that he/she leaves the forum. How you position yourself in this community really comes down to your personality type, what you hope to get out of SS, your thinking habits.
This forum is as close to being a haven for the mentally wounded as it can get. There's a tremendous amount of useful information provided here that can't be found elsewhere. However, if you're observant, interesting dynamics among members will start to surface after you spend some time here. Whenever there's a large and diverse group of people, there will be conflicts (often overt) - hell, suicidal humans are still humans and humans are never so simple, are they?
Last but not least, don't automatically jump to the conclusion that you're uttering heresy when your opinions are unpopular. Like Bertrand Russell once said, "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible." By the way, the majority of posts on this forum are actually made by a small number of prolific posters.
* Some of the points I made above are ambiguous and they're meant to stay that way to avoid pointing fingers. The most interesting stuff is circulated only via PM, but what happens in PM stays in PM, so don't ask me to clarify anything.
* I'm NOT implying 99.9% content are all lies, simply the veracity can't be corroborated.
* I'm NOT grouping all prolific posters together. Many do have a mind of their own, stay neutral, love to help others with their wisdom.
* I'm NOT suggesting there's anything wrong with being a prolific poster in and of itself. This is the only place where many find solace and get social interactions.
* Please excuse any awkward expression or wording as English isn't my first language.
Be careful not to hand out your trust too easily to people who openly share their vulnerability. This is an effective tactic of letting themselves be perceived as harmless, transparent, and trustworthy. Remember, as heavily moderated as this forum is and as wonderful as many members are, this is still the internet. Moderators can't get into people's heads; they can only eliminate the most blatant offenses of forum rules. 99.9% of the members' stories and assertions can't be corroborated.
Watch out for certain close-knit groups of prolific posters. The main reason why they're influential is that they make this forum the center of their lives and spend all day writing a sheer number of posts like it's their full-time job. it's understandably natural for them to want to climb up the "corporate ladder" and there will be "office politics," which inevitably involve manipulation, distortion of facts, and power play. Their motivations are most likely benign in nature; but nonetheless, they can lead you by the nose and incite the type of emotional responses they want out of you. Btw, the deceased can't talk or correct statements made by the living and their influence on this site before they CTBed can be taken advantage of.
Many of you experience peer rejection, lack of approval in real life. The reaction scores (loves, hugs, likes, awws, etc) are easily interpreted as gestures of approval and acceptance. It's natural for people to be drawn to those who "quench their thirst." Some members are very generous with handing out the reaction scores. Meanwhile, you'd subconsciously feel an obligation to reciprocate the kindness and warmth. The result of that is you can get passively "won over."
Mob and cliquey behaviors:
Some members support their "buddies" rather than the content of a post. And a lot of times, they do so without even reading the original post.
A manipulation tactic that the mobs frequently deploy is they falsely accuse somebody as being an abuser/bully/troll, so the attackers act like victims and push their opponent to adopt a defensive stance while they can mask their aggression, divert people's attention away from what their opponent wanted to discuss in the first place.
Displacement of concepts is another clever tactic. For example, the overuse and misuse of the word "troll." The strict definition of a troll largely has to do with a poster's intention. Does this person just have unique and different opinions, or does the person enjoy harassing and upsetting people, or seeking attention? The mobs like to label anyone with a contrary view as a troll.
When a thread of controversial topics pops up, the original post might not violate any forum rules. But as a discussion escalates into a fight, the moderators would have to jump in and the thread gets censored. Fights easily break out when people get fired up, and eliciting emotional responses from a mob isn't rocket science, which leaves room for manipulation. The folks who are content with their position in a power structure don't like agitation.
How a mob gathers momentum and amplifies:
The folks express anger at you, make derogatory remarks about your posts without explanation as to why they're upset or present cogent arguments. They "like" each other's posts, bond over attacking you, their personal opinions receive positive reinforcement and validation - that's when you see them get fired up and make more subsequent posts often with nothing new to add. The members who're ambivalent will sit in the stands and watch the fight - some remain ambivalent, some choose the prevailing side and join in.
You may be thinking, the tactics I mentioned above seem so deliberately orchestrated, but most people just write whatever off the top of their head at the time of posting, and people don't have to give an explanation to every single point they make. So am I overthinking and overanalyzing? Maybe. Maybe not.
Manipulation tactics are unintentionally and unconsciously deployed all the time. In one of my other threads about herd mentality, I wrote about studies on how 95% of people follow 5% without realizing it. They unconsciously mimic attitudes, speech styles, non-verbal cues, etc. It's also a fact that people act differently when peer pressure is present.
Mob or herd mentality isn't always bad though. The biggest advantage is to keep you safe. Every now and then, a newbie gets so distraught by hostility from just a single or a few members that he/she leaves the forum. How you position yourself in this community really comes down to your personality type, what you hope to get out of SS, your thinking habits.
This forum is as close to being a haven for the mentally wounded as it can get. There's a tremendous amount of useful information provided here that can't be found elsewhere. However, if you're observant, interesting dynamics among members will start to surface after you spend some time here. Whenever there's a large and diverse group of people, there will be conflicts (often overt) - hell, suicidal humans are still humans and humans are never so simple, are they?
Last but not least, don't automatically jump to the conclusion that you're uttering heresy when your opinions are unpopular. Like Bertrand Russell once said, "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible." By the way, the majority of posts on this forum are actually made by a small number of prolific posters.
* Some of the points I made above are ambiguous and they're meant to stay that way to avoid pointing fingers. The most interesting stuff is circulated only via PM, but what happens in PM stays in PM, so don't ask me to clarify anything.
* I'm NOT implying 99.9% content are all lies, simply the veracity can't be corroborated.
* I'm NOT grouping all prolific posters together. Many do have a mind of their own, stay neutral, love to help others with their wisdom.
* I'm NOT suggesting there's anything wrong with being a prolific poster in and of itself. This is the only place where many find solace and get social interactions.
* Please excuse any awkward expression or wording as English isn't my first language.
