Deion Sanders once said, “What about me would make you think that I care about your opinion of me?”
He wasn’t brushing people off. He was standing firm in who he is, clear on his values, clear on his boundaries.
That’s a skill worth having, especially if you’ve ever posted something thoughtful on Facebook and watched it get shredded by strangers who seem to be arguing with a person you’ve never met, including you.
When you’re visible, whether because you write, serve, or share regularly, you attract attention.
Not all of it is productive.
Some folks come to disagree. Fair enough. Others come to demean, distort, or provoke. And when you respond, even to correct the record, you risk rewarding the behavior you’d rather not encourage.
Recently, I saw a response to a comment I made on a public figure’s post that had me shaking my head. The writer, who apparently likes to come up with nicknames he incorrectly believes are clever, referred to a “satanic lobbyist.”
It wasn’t disagreement. It wasn’t critique. It was performance: deliberate distortion designed to get a reaction.
When people see nonsense like that, they either laugh or shake their heads and move along. But here’s the danger: the more we let that kind of thing dominate the conversation, the more normal it starts to feel.
It’s not the one-off comment that does the damage. It’s the normalization. The piling on. The baiting. The off-topic rants. The comments that twist your words and assign motives you never claimed.
You don’t need to defend yourself from every one of them. You don’t need to “set the record straight” if the only audience is the troll who twisted it in the first place.
Here’s how I think about it: Is this person asking in good faith? Will anything I say make the conversation better for the people quietly reading? Is this worth my energy, or am I letting them decide what I spend time on today?
If the answer to those questions is no, I scroll on. I’ll block repeat offenders if they turn into a pattern. I’ll delete comments if they’re offensive or so far off-base they serve no purpose. And I’ll screenshot the worst, because sometimes keeping receipts is necessary.
The flip side matters just as much. This week I shared a letter to the editor by William Wallace.
It was one of the best I’ve read: sharp, honest, and beautifully written. When he replied to say he was glad it resonated with me, I explained: You have a gift, and you put it to good use.
Not everyone who writes well has excellent points to make, and not everyone with excellent insights can express them clearly. He did both. That’s the kind of contribution we should lift up. That’s what makes the mess worth sifting through.
Social media doesn’t have to be a swamp. It’s a tool. It lets us connect with people we might never see in person. It lets us share ideas, ask questions, and learn what’s happening in our towns and state.
But it also magnifies whatever gets rewarded. If distortion, cruelty, and bad faith get all the airtime, they become the dominant tone. If clarity, respect, and courage get amplified instead, we’re all better for it.
So if you’re out there posting, commenting, or even just reading, own your space.
You don’t have to respond to every cheap shot. You don’t have to let every comment into your head. And you don’t have to explain yourself to people who only showed up to twist what you said.
Like Deion said, stand firm in who you are. Know why you speak up. Then don’t let anyone shake that loose.
Gail Symons can be reached at: GailSymons@mac.com
