Social media opens the door for people to express their opinions, beliefs, and theories online. Once something is posted, others on the account have the opportunity to like and comment (whether good or bad) on it. This is a great aspect of social media, but it comes with its downfalls. One of the main downfalls, is incivility. Incivility is someone being disrespectful to another person (usually someone with a different point of view).

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but people sometimes forget that what they say online can affect others. Incivility has grown since the creation of social media, because it allows for people to attack other people’s view points  with the protection of a screen. This growth of incivility can possibly slow down or even stop if everyone took a few minutes to think about the possible effects that one’s comment can produce.

When people act or in this case comment with anger, they may say or do something that they may regret later. To prevent this from happening, you can look at a post that you do not agree with and then think about what you are trying to  accomplish with a counterargument that you provide. For example, if your counterargument is trying to educate another person, then place oneself into his or her shoes and figure out where they are coming from and respectfully offer a different perspective on the situation. This method is better than attacking someone for having different beliefs, because more than likely attacking them will make them more defensive. Also, attacking someone may come off as cyber bullying. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect whether or not one agrees with another person’s opinion. Uncivil conversations usually leads to nowhere and it just makes everyone upset and defensive.  On the other hand, civil conversations can lead to better understanding and respect for another person’s point of view and it can even change one’s opinion about the situation.