Throughout the years I have come to realize that debating online has its merits. For one, you get to experience the actual mental caliber of someone which is almost impossible to do in person. The reason is quite simple. Almost 80% of all communication happens with our bodies. Most people are used to casual, passive talk or have become experts in rhetorics, dodging the topics at hand just to blend in with the crowd. Surely, this is the best way to maintain relationships and have plenty of friendships, but in the longterm, it ends up being a superficial facade that merely serves as a medium for socialization.
Perhaps we are designed to be a little bit superficial, generic and manipulative since being social is vital to our survival. An essential skill we learn as humans from the age of 4 is to lie, to deceive. If one was completely honest it would be impossible for them to make it anywhere in the world since social relationships are based largely on deception even if we don't want to admit it. From the clothes we wear in interviews, our manners on the table, strategies at war or language and make-up when we date, we deceive, constantly.
Similarly, online, our friends and colleagues might get agitated if we comment on their posts because we might appear more knowledgeable and true than they are. This creates friction in relationships, one that could be easily avoided if the conversation was taking place in person, using the filler body language to dodge, deceive and manipulate. Most of us have come to rely so much on superficial language that we don't even realize we are using it.
I have been debating online for many years now and it has been a great tool for stimulating my brain either for knowledge or entertainment. I designed the poster below as a final realisation.
