Don’t Ask If You Don’t Want To Know
I’ve noticed a lot of people on social media will ask a discussion group a question along the lines of: “Do you like A or B?” or “What would you do in a situation like this…?” and the group will respond (everyone on social media is an expert on everything and you really don’t even need to ask their opinion on your posts — they’ll give it to you whether you want it or not). But instead of being grateful for the feedback they requested, the person who asked 1,000 strangers their personal opinion will get upset, argumentative, and down-right insulting of the people who replied to the query. They’ll basically bite the head off anyone whose opinion wasn’t what the person wanted it to be.
Don’t Ask The Question If You’re Going To Argue About the Answer
If you ask a roomful of people what they’re favorite color is, it makes no sense to berate and belittle all the people who said “red” because you think they should have said “blue”.
People who ask a question like that believe they are seeking out a “majority rule” answer so that they can move forward on a project they’re stuck on. They figure if a preponderance of people choose A over B, then they can also choose A with relief and feel safe and justified moving forward.
But they’re usually wrong.
When a bunch of people choose A, and the person asking the question really wanted to go with B, they don’t simply accept the vote. They will assume the people didn’t understand the question and will trying explaining it all over again so they’ll make a different choice and come over to the other side.
If that initial attempt to sway the group didn’t work, then the person asking will get angry. They’ll think the group was ignorant or stupid for making the choice they did and pick fights with members of the dissenting side thinking that brute force will make them see the light.
But again, they’re usually very wrong.
The other side will simply dig in further, and the original questioner allows themselves to get distracted by the arguments instead of picking an option (ANY option!) and moving forward.
Asking a question and then arguing about the answer you received is a self-deceiving distraction.
You already know the answer to that question you’re about to ask a group on Facebook. Save yourself the time, frustration, aggravation, and distraction by simply going with your gut or choosing an option at random.
