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Wayne: So, today we’re talking about possibly one of my favorite subjects, keyboard warriors.

Cem: They’re all over the place.

Wayne: And how you’re wasting your time, keyboard warriors, you are wasting your time.

Cem: Don’t tell them that, they will be so depressed to hear that they’re-

Wayne: That’s okay. I’ll get hate mail now.

Cem: They’re passive aggressive sharing on Facebook is not being seen or not changing the world for better.

Wayne: I’ll get hate mail now from the keyboard warriors. It’s great. Bring it on. So, an article went on Mashable. Basically some research has come out which suggests that actually people’s opinions aren’t changed via social media all that much.

Cem: You mean when I share those articles of Android users and how good Android is you’re never going to buy one Wayne?

Wayne: Damn right. If anything I’m just going to look at it, roll my eyes-

Cem: Report it to Facebook. Abuse. Bullying.

Wayne: Fake news.

Cem: Fake news.

Wayne: But, yeah, it’s true. And I feel like particularly Facebook these days has become an avenue for political activism-

Cem: Slacktavism.

Wayne: What?

Cem: Slacktavism.

Wayne: What’s slacktavism?

Cem: That you’re slacking, that you basically think you’re doing good but you’re just slacking, you’re just sitting on your ass.

Wayne: Being a keyboard warrior basically.

Cem: Being a keyboard warrior.

Wayne: Being like make the world a better place. Throwing all their rubbish in just like a pile and not in the recycling bin.

Cem: So what’s the huge, or how do you spot a keyboard warrior?

Wayne: Well usually they’re sat behind a keyboard, there’s usually steam coming out their ears, they’re typing frantically, possibly a blood vessel popping.

Cem: Like those anime cartoons.

Wayne: Yeah. Yeah.

Cem: And they’re usually any of the popular news that’s coming out they’ve got an opinion on it.

Wayne: Yeah.

Cem: And if you were them the world would be a great place. If you thought like them.

Wayne: If you thought like them. Why isn’t everybody think like them? Anyway, as I was saying Facebook become this place for activism and like-

Cem: You know I hear the best quote, it was on the Jerry Rogan podcast, it might not have been from him, but he said that social media is like your own personal PR team.

Wayne: Yes.

Cem: That.

Wayne: Particularly Facebook I think. But yeah, I do feel like Facebook’s really weird at the minute, don’t you think?

Cem: I think it’s on a downward spiral of like-

Wayne: Something’s happened to it and I don’t really know-

Cem: It used to be sharing actual family, and friends, and personal stuff. Now it’s literally just to reinforce your opinion on a subject.

Wayne: Yeah.

Cem: Which is bloody annoying.

Wayne: But as this mash-

Cem: You know how many people have just stopped … You know when you can hide from feed?

Wayne: Yeah. I’m starting doing it now.

Cem: Literally just getting so bored of uh, that person, please just shut up about that thing. Just too much.

Wayne: Yeah. No. I’m with you, I’m with you. And as this article from Mashable is trying to say is actually those people are completely wasting their time.

Cem: But most of the time there’s that one person that bites that says something back, and then it’s just hilarious. Then you see this massive stream of back and forth, and then it ends with then we’ll agree to disagree.

Wayne: Oh. In which case what’s the point? Do you know how many times in the last few days I’ve seen somebody post something and I’ve really had to not bite, and I’ve actually started a response, and then been like what are you doing Wayne?

Cem: Get on with your life.

Wayne: Yeah. Nobody cares, why do you care. Get rid of it. But yeah, essentially keyboard warriors you are wasting your time because what was the stat? I can’t quite read it, it’s all the way over there Cem.

Cem: 14% of the 4,594 U.S. adults surveyed between May 29th and June 11th, very specific time-

Wayne: Of what year? Unless it’s May 1929 to June 2011.

Cem: Not exactly. Basically have said they have changed their views about political or social issue in the past year. I’m not going to say that social media doesn’t change you because we can’t underestimate that 1 in 10 people being actually converted on a topic, but at the same time it’s like what you say, it’s that fluff that’s available online. And a lot of time we spoke about it in the past is that usually your own personal social media is your own eco chamber of already your current beliefs, especially if you’re an older person. If you’re a young person then you’re just getting into it, but when you’re our age you’ve got this group of friends that all your friends for a reason, unless you’ve got a lot randoms, and so your friends tend to have the same beliefs as you, and therefore ultimately what’s usually happening is actually that social media is just reinforcing your current beliefs and it’s going to take a lot if someone comes in with a sudden change of view. Usually that’s like, I don’t know, if that view is still fits into the zeitgeist of your friendships, but makes people think yeah actually that’s a different way of looking at it.

Cem: It might get through on the whole … For example, with me it’s like try be vegan now, it influenced my friends think well maybe I’ll cut down a little bit of the meat I eat. It’s enough that it changes, so that can be that 1 in 10 now say actually I don’t need to eat as much meat as before. But I think this article is ultimately probably more to do with the fake news, Donald Trump getting into power, and stuff like that. Did it influence people to completely change their mind? It’s not like people got brainwashed off of Facebook.

Wayne: Well yeah. And I think also, to me I think of because social media … I think media is the keyword with social media. Is we’re now in a position where we all are essentially our own newspaper, we are essentially our own TV channel, we are essentially our own radio show because we have written visual audio content creation at our fingertips. And so by osmosis we’ve kind of become that. And, in the sense of newspapers being … For example, if I see a political article come up from a one particular newspaper I’m going to go well this is going to be a left wing or right wing view of that particular issue. And so I’m going to read it through that lens of well, of course they’re going to say that because they are on this part of the political spectrum, and of course they’re going to side with that person or try and back them up because they’re on that side of the political spectrum. And I feel like particularly with Facebook it’s king of the same because for example, if you were to be posting stuff about veganism all the time and why you should go vegan I’m going to be like well of course he’s going to say that, he’s a vegan and he owns a vegan business. Of course he’s going to say that.

Wayne: So he’s not going to change my mind, it’s just going to the cenacle part of me is going to be like okay, well I might hear what he has to say, but I’m obviously looking at it through the lens of knowing that he’s bias in the same way I’ll post, although I try not to, but I have a lot of actors on my Facebook so I’ll post a lot of stuff about acting, and a lot of stuff about mental health as well because I’m really passionate about mental health. And there are people that are not going to care about acting or mental health, and they’re going to be like okay, well, great, but I don’t give a shit. And I feel like that’s where we’ve got to now because everybody’s, particularly the ones that are relentless with the things … I have a few people I’m like I’m just going to start hiding you soon because I’m not friends with you on Facebook so that you can convert me to whatever thing you’re trying to convert me to. I’m friends with you on Facebook because you’re a friend of mine.

Cem: At one point in my life I cared about you, but now you’ve become-

Wayne: Now you’re a thorn in my side.

Cem: Yes.

Wayne: So yeah. I guess in short with social media just be aware you are preaching to the choir a lot of the time. And, equally there are people that just don’t want to bite.

Cem: Or just go out and meet your friends in person, have a beer, and have a conversation around the subject rather than-

Wayne: Yeah, but people don’t know how to debate anymore Cem.

Cem: It’s a loss.

Wayne: I genuinely believe it is a lost skill. People take things so personally.

Cem: I think it’s one of those things though that’s actually really fun to do when you do it, especially how with friends you have a conversation about something. Because sometimes you both end up still not good, but you’ve at least heard each other out and you have a conversation. It makes you feel like oh that was good, that weren’t just about love island, we actually had a bit of an intellectual debate in some way.

Wayne: Yeah. Oh yeah, definitely.

Cem: That could just be us thinking that, maybe we should watch more Big Brother and Love Island then we can talk about someone’s sexy abs.

Wayne: So, next week we’ll be doing an episode on Celebrity Big Brother and the Roxanne Pallett scandal. That’s about all I know about Celebrity Big Brother is Roxanne Pallett at the minute.

Cem: Oh God.

Wayne: Although by the time these episodes come out Celebrity Big Brother will be well and truly over.

Cem: Please cancel it eventually.

If you want any questions answered, or if you have any ideas for anythings you’d like us to address, send us an email, Wayne@powerfulnonsense.com or Cem@powerfulnonsense.com, or you can look us up on the Twitterz @PN_Podcast, and we will take it into consideration. And also, please do leave us a nice little review on the old iTunes. It really does help get the word out there for the show. Five stars or more, greatly appreciated.