If I Could Give You Just One Piece of Advice

If I could give you just one piece of advice, it would be this: Don’t read the comments section.

Many news organizations still have comments sections.  Comments sections provide a nourishing habitat for trolls, toxic creatures whose egos are fed with belligerent virtue signalling.  It’s basically Mos Eisley: you’ll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.  The easy fix: don’t read the comments.  I don’t have comments on this website to avoid headaches with trolls and spammers.

The problem: Facebook and Twitter are basically free-form comments sections.  I love news, sports, and investing, but each has their own particular breed of troll.  Are you a [political party affiliation]?  A college student would love to tell you all about how the world REALLY works (stay woke!).  Love the Indians?  There’s a 14 year old in Toronto who wants to tell you how much your favorite player sucks.  Finance Twitter usually remains cordial.  Instead of insulting you, trolls put the issue to a trial of semantics.

While social media is a fetid bog, it is also a source of timely, unfiltered (both for good and ill) information.  For me, the most amazing use of Twitter is following breaking international news like the Arab Spring or the recent attempted coup in Turkey.  Seek out reliable sources and be rewarded.

One last thing: if you’re ever tempted to interact with a troll, take a breath and don’t do it.  Yes, someone is wrong on the internet.  And that’s ok.