Social Media Dialogue Part 4: 12 More Practical Tips

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Josh, Tim, and Rachel continue a multi-part series on how to be an effective pro-life advocate on social media. In this episode they continue a series of 35 practical tips in five categories.

The episode begins with a brief discussion of Josh and Tim’s new kittens. If you want to skip this, the substantive content begins at 09:40.

Here are the tips covered in this episode:

Practical Lowering Defenses Moves

  1. Point out virtually every case of common ground.
  2. Do the “tell them what you don’t mean” thing more often on social media than in person due to it being easier for them to misunderstand, stew a bit, and then yell back an angry response or just leave, not giving you a chance to clarify.
  3. Consistently summarize the other person’s view or argument to them throughout the conversation. This assures the other person you’re taking them seriously as a human being and not some random name with a picture.
  4. Don’t forget to be relational when you talk about rape and other hard topics.
  5. Never (or rarely) use any language even bordering on profanity, caps, or anything remotely disrespectful like “baby killer”, “murderer”, etc.
  6. Use neutral terminology that the other side is comfortable with. 
  7. Never compare to Adolf Hitler, Dr. Mengele, Stalin, Pol Pot, the Holocaust, etc. That immediately ticks people off.
  8. Ask clarifying questions if you don’t understand; don’t assume.
  9. Point out when they teach you something.
  10. Like the other person’s comments when they’re being clear and charitable, not just when you agree with them.
  11. Don’t like or share inflammatory things.
  12. Sow intentional positive seeds with people you would hope to dialogue with one day.

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