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Ah, social media… isn’t it great!

As a reader more than a poster, I love how it connects people. Through my various hobbies, I’ve met many like-minded individuals who share my interests. Numerous Facebook groups bring together people who are passionate about gardening, motorsports, cricket, and football, offering a space for sharing information and connecting over shared pastimes. My other passion, ancestry tracking, has also been enriched through social media; it has allowed me to connect with distant relatives and uncover new details about our family history—our ancestors, their origins, and their lifestyles. Social media has even helped family members reconnect after years apart due to career moves and family commitments.

However, this article isn’t about the positive side of social media. It’s about the unfortunate individuals who seem intent on spreading negativity on platforms like Facebook. These people hide behind their keyboards and seem to spend their time denigrating others. So, I’m left with a question that genuinely intrigues me: why do they do it?

For all the good that social media has brought, it has also exposed a less admirable side of human nature. Why do people lose their composure on social media platforms? Why do strangers, who often don’t know each other, respond so quickly with anger, rudeness, or even outright hostility? Often, someone simply asks a question or offers advice in good faith, yet the response is hostile and wildly disproportionate. The time between a comment being posted and a hostile reaction seems almost instantaneous.

You can almost picture these “keyboard warriors” becoming red-faced, ready to burst with anger at people they’ve never met, all over a simple question or comment. Their posts often include numerous grammatical and spelling errors, as if their rage leaves no time for editing. As they type, it’s as if veins are popping as they rush to hurl insults at a stranger who may simply have asked for help or shared a suggestion. And when others try to keep the conversation civil, these angry respondents often seem unwilling to accept that someone else might have a different perspective. To them, only their opinion matters, and they feel personally slighted if anyone dares to disagree. They rarely yield or consider an alternative viewpoint, even when their perspective appears flawed. Heaven forbid anyone else should have an opinion. But in some cases, it does make for entertaining reading. While I feel sorry for the folk who are just trying to helpfully answer a question, offer advice or give direction, watching the story unfold as these phychotic people lose their minds over something relatively minor is like watching a reality TV show unfold.

It’s almost certain that most of these online aggressors would never dare to act this way face-to-face. So, what is it about online social media networks that bring out this behavior?

Social media platforms have existed in one form or another for about 20 years. During that time, they have evolved far beyond their original purpose. It seems we’ve always had loudmouth individuals who demand to be heard above everyone else in a room—often the loud, opinionated drunks in a pub or other public spaces who believe their opinions hold more weight than others. With the rise of social media, these platforms have become the new stage for the overly opinionated to broadcast their lack of knowledge to the world, frequently hiding behind pseudonyms to shield their ignorance and avoid accountability.

The topic of free speech is often raised by individuals who, through rudeness or lack of understanding, seem to believe they are entitled to voice their opinions regardless of accuracy. In this view, fact-checking appears unnecessary; any opinion is treated as sufficient, even when it is incorrect. As a result, personal commentary is presented as an answer, rather than a reasoned or accurate one.

Another interesting observation I’ve made is that some people seem incapable of answering a question without adding a snide remark or quoting a ridiculous line from an old movie in a misguided attempt at humour. This is often done to ridicule the person asking the question and frequently escalates into online arguments between individuals who hijack the forum to showcase their own hostility and ignorance. What baffles me most is that this behaviour takes place in a public space, often under their real names. I don’t understand it—it’s an exercise in futility.

I don’t have an answer to my initial question. Perhaps the simplest explanation is that the world is full of diverse people, each with unique temperaments and personalities. I’ve often thought that wars may have been sparked by something that was said—or believed to have been said. People have lost their lives, and nations have been overrun, all due to words, actions, or even minor implications that seemed inconsequential at the time. Political views, religious beliefs, or even something as trivial as musical preferences can escalate into hostility. It’s often the little things that snowball into larger conflicts.

Let’s keep it together, people.