People fight over text all the time.
You know, digital drama is a thing.
There are ways to avoid digital drama,
but I think it's in... it's mainly inevitable.
You need to, like, get ready to, like, have something be said
that maybe... maybe you won't like.
On social media,
you know, everything social-wise
gets a bit more intense.
It just causes so much unnecessary drama, I would say.
Sometimes I need to take a break from it,
because sometimes it's too much for me.
And then if there's, like, drama going on, I'll set it aside.
And even though there are steps that we can take to reduce it,
it's not going to end.
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You can say anything over text,
which you would never actually say in real life.
It's so much easier to fight with your friend over the phone
than it is to fight with your friend in person.
That's a new thing.
People can just hide behind, you know, certain accounts
and certain places on social media,
and just say what, whatever they want to say.
We kind of have this disconnect that I think sometimes
social media can cause where it develops
like a... almost a tolerance for a lack of empathy.
It's really important to think about how other people
are going to take it
because whatever comment you make could be seen
by potentially thousands or millions of people.
Now more than ever where somebody makes a rude comment
and they get put on blast for it.
You don't see the other person's reactions,
so you just keep on going,
you don't know if the person is sad,
you don't know if they're angry,
you don't know what they're thinking about you.
Social media can be... can turn into sort of a negative space
when there's a lot of, like, anonymous posting.
No one else knows who that person is,
so it creates a lot of, like, tension and drama
within friend groups.
In the comment sections of posts that, you know,
are viral or popular,
I'll see someone voicing an opinion and all of a sudden
there'll be a thread of even hundreds of comments,
people just arguing and arguing and not even knowing each other.
You could get insulted very easily,
like, on your appearance,
on your, like, just anything that you say,
anything that you put out onto the internet.
Something so small can escalate
to something so big, and as it escalates,
the topic can completely change to something that's really big.
People that I know actually worry about how many followers
they have compared to other people,
if they're not getting as many messages.
When I see, like, the people around me getting into drama
on social media, it kind of makes me
not want to be on social media.
It just seems easier to not be a part of that.
I have a couple friends who are very close,
but they fight a lot.
I'll get screenshots of their conversation
from both of the people just being upset
and sending long paragraphs about how upset they are
instead of talking to each other about it in person,
which I've suggested to both of them multiple times.
I would say I'm more comfortable talking face-to-face
because, like, on social media
it's hard to, like, communicate,
like, a sense of realness and, like, emotions.
The best way to deal with digital drama
is to leave what's happening.
Maybe it's a group chat that you're in, just to leave that.
Because the more that people talk about it,
the more that people are going to think about it,
and the more you might get into it,
and you might say more things.
It is really easily... easy to get your feelings hurt,
but, you know, you just got to, like... it's just kind of...
they're just hiding behind a screen, basically.
I think the best way to deal with digital drama
and help mediate it is, first of all,
I always suggest talking in person
because that's always easier.
Avoiding confrontation is something that I'm trying
to be aware that I don't do.
A way that I can just disassociate myself
from the negativity is to just not respond.
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