Facebook: The go-to place for public arguments

Chances are we’ve all witnessed it a few times before: people who take private arguments onto Facebook, making them public arguments. It seems as if the website facilitates making even the pettiest of arguments into public arguments for all your friends to see. It looks as if the phenomenon is becoming even more commonplace.

A recent New York Times article highlights a couple who take many of their arguments onto the social networking site, and the repercussions of such. Bringing such arguments onto Facebook puts friends into strange positions, as I’m sure many of us are aware. The question seems to be whether outsiders should become involved or not. Sure, some people put those arguments online to get validation that they are right, but choosing sides, or telling someone they’re wrong can be difficult. According to the NY Times article, such arguments can even cause some people to alienate their friends, or let friends believe couples shouldn’t be together if they argue in public so much.

Sometimes these arguments can be the only contact we have with certain people, which brings about some interesting dilemmas. We still haven’t exactly decided on the proper etiquette for how to deal with arguments on Facebook or other social networks. The article brings in experts to claim part of it is because of the “significant degradation of our regard for marriage” that we have as a society. Not really being qualified to speak to such matters, I can say that perhaps etiquette should be established as to how to bring arguments into public, if they should even be public over Facebook.

Read [New York Times]