| > To me the more interesting thing is why people feel compelled to engage, especially so when it comes to substances. My experience is that people do not. I almost always see these in LinkedIn where I do not respond because I do not think it would be appropriate to do so - any more than it is to discuss it there. People who do respond are uniformly supportive. I might respond there to a discussion about whether this is something appropriate to post there. I responded here with this comment because I saw a parallel and this is a more general discussion. > If I just say "I don't X", some portion of people will undoubtedly hear "and nobody else should either" and get their hackles up. Again your experience differs from mine. I do see similar comments else where and a simple "I don't do X" is invariably ignored. Even on Facebook! I saw someone say "I do not drink alcohol myself" in a discussion on FB recently and it did not affect the discussion (parents talking about teens drinking) at all and the same with a similar discussion on LinkedIn (although I read that thread less closely). I do see responses when someone makes particular claims, most commonly about vegan diets - e.g. making specific claims about health etc. I think the responses depend on the audience and the context. If it is made on Twitter by someone widely followed I would expect lots of such responses (not seen anyone say it on Twitter that I can recall). > It's really just a topic best avoided if you don't want to offend people or risk making them think poorly of you, even if you aren't the one bringing it up. Which seems a little sad. I think discussing personal issues on social media is a bad idea generally so its no loss. |