When and Where

I've been thinking lately about how to talk with people when I disagree with them or wonder if they have thought things through fully. I'm not talking about little things, but the big stuff that involves God and the Bible: the important stuff. There's a lot of stuff that I'm willing to leave alone, mostly involving politics, because people get too emotional and angry. Of course, that's how they are when God is involved as well, which is why I usually keep silent, but now I'm not sure if I should, or when I should speak up.

This is what experience has shown me: things like Facebook are likely not the best place for these discussions. I've read things that people have posted and asked questions to clarify or expressed a different opinion, and generally people ignore what I've said. It seems that they don't want to engage in any type of discussion; they want to express their opinion and that's it. And I'm okay with that; I've opened the door for further conversation, and if they don't want to, that's their choice. Other times, people go straight to defensive and won't listen (or read, as the case may be) or go straight to the "agree to disagree" conversation closer. In the end, I've concluded that most people on Facebook do not want to discuss or think more about what they've posted (although there are some exceptions).

Twitter...well, I don't even have Twitter and I really don't understand how people actually have debates via Twitter. It's strange!

Which brings me to blogs. I read a variety of blogs and the comment sections can get rather...interesting. Some bloggers have measures in place to moderate the comments while others let anything go. The later tend to disintegrate into people refusing to listen to anyone who disagrees and trying to take over the comments so no one can respond. Too many bloggers (although of blogs that I rarely read) either remove comments that disagree or get defensive. Here's my opinion: unlike Facebook, which is intended for short comments and is semi-private, blogs are out there for the world to read. If you're going to blog, you need to accept that people might disagree with you and either be prepared to discuss (or redirect or refuse to allow for hostile takeovers when commenters will not listen or act with some respect) or close the comment section.

So...sometimes it's worth trying to engage people in blog comment sections, and sometimes it isn't.

Which brings me to this blog. Is it the right time and place for me to talk about ideas and such that people have that I think are incorrect or not thought through well? I really don't know. I don't know if I have the time to discuss things if there are disagreeing comments. I don't know if I have the time to do the research to make sure my position is correct. I don't know what my purpose would be in bringing up more controversial topics: to get attention? to help set the record straight? to show a different way of looking at things? And internet discussion is tough because of the time between comments (it isn't a conversation in the traditional sense of the word) an the potential for misunderstanding.

I guess what it comes down to is evaluating my own motives and deciding if the internet is the right place to discuss things and if I want to get away from "safe" blogging.

I don't have any answers, just questions. I'll take any advice you might have on this one, though.