Debate Ethics in the Digital Age: Navigating Online Discourse and Civility
Never has it been more difficult to navigate discourse online. Between the multitude of social media platforms, from WeChat to Reddit and TikTok to Instagram, and the never ending stream of trolls in comment sections on YouTube videos and Twitter posts, Internet users are constantly presented with the opportunity to engage in arguments. And these arguments range from the mundane and frivolous to extremely important. The Internet provides, in short, the opportunity to debate about everything. Below are some tips for finding constructive debate on those online platforms, and some things to avoid as well.
The first thing users want to avoid are clickbait and trolls. Many debates sparked online aren’t genuine, in so far as they’re propagated by people seeking engagement, rather than people seeking actual conversation around important issues. Being able to identify when faceless users have malintent is key. Inflammatory claims, whether that be in a direct post or an article headline, are clear indications of baiting, rather than debating. Likewise, anonymous users, accounts without information, and new accounts are extremely unlikely to be reliable for warranting their claims or engaging in well-meaning debate. Those are easy red flags to avoid.
Users must be especially wary of real (or at least, real looking) people that congregate online and push groupthink, rather than proper discussion and debate. These spaces are akin to wandering into a football stadium and asking the crowd of home fans why they aren’t cheering for the away team. It’s a losing battle that won’t result in any sort of constructive dialogue. The more people believe something, the less likely they are to question it. Seeking a debate out in those online hives is likely to result in criticism, cyberbullying, or worse.
Lastly, when navigating the Internet for fun, work, or healthy debate preparation, the most important thing to remember is to fact-check. Misinformation, disinformation, and A.I. generated content has swept the world wide web in recent years, jeopardizing the hard work of scientists and journalists. Fact checking the information in these articles, the authors of these pieces, and the sources sharing them is the only way to be sure that what you’re reading is accurate – or true at all. It’s best for users to avoid relying on articles that aren’t face checked when debating online, so as to save themselves from looking foolish, and it’s especially important to fact check before taking information found on the Internet and using it in a real world debate.
While the Internet poses many concerns with maintaining civil and honest debate, these are the key ways to avoid those issues and create a healthy debate environment online.