You go on social media to post something, but while writing it you change your mind. How often does this happen to you?

Just in case anyone is confused, when I say change your mind I mean you end up not posting what you were going to post for one reason or another.

Unless this counts, I don't post on social media.

...this happens to me less than 1 out of 10 times, which is not an option. I’m amazed at the specificity of the numbers in the poll otherwise. Are people really going to know that this happens to them exactly 6 out of 10 times, not 5 or 7?

I have to watch what I write. Knowing that my family or friends could be watching it. It is called being cautious. I could lose friends or even family. It is thinking before posting.

You'll never know, because I'll change my mind before posting this! Ahahaha!!

Wait, crap. I guess the evidence speaks to the contrary.

Yeah, that does happen to me a lot. Usually when there's some real incendiary comment that makes me want to tell a guy off or at least offer some perspective. But by the time I'm done writing the post I kinda lose steam and decide not to dabble in futility.

On Twitter most definitely almost all the time. I lurk and read more than I care to risk any kind of throw down. Most recently I had things I would have liked to say to Ian Miles Cheong and his ilk over the piece on Waypoint about the cyberpunk trans character, but I just couldn't imagine a scenario where any outcome would be worth it.

Oh, I thought you meant reverse your opinion when I voted in the poll.

I'd say i never post 1/2- 2/3 of what I start to for one reason or another and about 10-20% in the process of thinking it through I actually change my opinion.

I don't really use "social media", but forums are close enough, and yeah, it happens from time to time. Mostly in regards to me seeing someone say something really stupid and I really want to point out and argue against their stupidity, but then I realize I know exactly the kind of dumb argument that will go nowhere that will result from me saying something, so I stop myself and walk away.

If I've learned anything from the many years I've used the internet, it's that stupid people will not accept their stupidity, no matter how sound your arguments are, so you better feel extremely strongly to willingly smash your head against that wall of stupid.

@superkenon: exactly my feelings.

A similar one happens to me sometimes when writing an indifferent or even positive comment, where I'll think something like "no one actually cares what I think on the subject. What does it matter?" Or on a less depressing note, "Oh, this is all just the same stuff everyone else is saying."

I honestly got this feeling two sentences into this very post, but thought the irony would be way too bitter, so I decided to follow through.

I never post anything on social media really in terms of politics/religion or anything worthy of possible offensiveness. I mostly use social media, like Facebook, as another way to keep up on video games, films, comics or things I'm interested in, in general, and sometimes post there. I'm not sure how many times I reconsider a post in that sense. However, on here, I have written threads or polls with several paragraphs spending 30 minutes to perhaps an hour, and then when I was done, I thought 'never mind' and erased it. Or typed up a comment and decided not to post it. It was never due to it being offensive though.

I remember someone telling me "If you argue with someone stupid, they'll drag you down to their level and beat you on experience".

Been avoiding pointless arguments ever since.

Similar to others - I never post on social media but I will sometimes write out a response or comment on a forum and then just say to myself "nah" and close the tab before posting it.

I couldn't put a number against it though. Maybe happens about once a week or so.

Almost didn't post a response. Stopped the one I was working on before posting this one, because I thought, "Is this shit really worth it?" But I still posted this. I don't know what is real anymore.

Quite a lot, I used to post complaining or talking shit about something, but then realized it mostly leads to fruitless arguments, just a waste of time.

Posting process:

Write response. Reread what I wrote. Reread it again. Go back and edit the grammar and wording. Have doubts about how something may be interpreted. Delete response and totally re-write it. Look a word up in the dictionary to make sure it means what I think it does. Reread it again. Refresh the page in case someone else responded in the time it took me to rewrite it. Get distracted and do something else. Find the tab with the response a couple hours later. Close the tab because I don't feel like responding anymore.

It's not so much about changing my mind, but I tend to always get caught up on my train of thought and end up spending an excessive amount of time trying to phrase my sentence out before eventually deciding not to post it.

It happens sometimes, but it is usually halfway through writing I ask myself "Will anyone actually care or is this just the text equivalent of a photo of the food I'm eating?" and decide to not add to the already over-cluttered social media space. Once in awhile its because I reread it and say "Wow I sound like a jackass."

It happens to me from time to time. My experience probably nudges me that my post is petty and unnecessary. Or it could be my better senses telling me that I'll regret posting it later on!

Social media isn’t worth it. Too many warriors and die hards for whatever the cause. Folks usually would rather yell, scream, and employ confirmation bias than talk with someone with another opinion and maybe learn a thing or two.

Anyhow, I quit. Too much negativity bogged me down.

Depends, really.

Twitter: almost never; I feel totally fine tweeting "what was that play call" or "lol zerglings" completely devoid of context because twitter has a weird dichotomy where it both matters a ton to our society but also can matter very little
These forums?: I probably only post 1 or 2 times for every 10 threads that I read that I actively have an opinion on and start writing out a response to; often I'll get a few sentences in and think either a) I'm not really adding anything important here, so who would care enough to read it, or b) my thoughts on this subject are important enough that I would want to actually spend a decent amount of time writing a detailed response, and that usually ends up meaning that I keep the tab open and half-finished until I rediscover it days later (and by that point the moment's passed) or have to close my browser because PUBG still runs like ass if I have anything else open

You can use this as a therapeutic tool. Often I write a post on here and then just close the tab.

I write and post almost exclusively dumb shit on my twitter and I try to ignore as much of the evil shit there that I can instead of getting baited in.

I try really hard to keep it cool on here and reddit too. I'm not too keen replying with bullshit fuel to a bullshit fire, looking at my typed comment almost always helps me walk back my anger at a dumb thing to be angry at, generally if I don't have some insight or something different to say about stuff I lean towards not commenting at all.

actually I make lots of silly comments here and try to thank the guys for pretty much every vid on here I enjoy

Not often enough, to be honest.

Came in here to say I don't post on social media then I realized this is probably social media.

If forums count, sure. More than enough times I’ve seen hateful/idiotic comments that I want to response to, but usually realize in time that it’d be pointless. Those few times when I actually do end up posting, I’ll often regret it right away still.

I don't use social media, unless comments and forum posts count, i don't tend to make my own topics instead making thoughtful responses, i don't change my mind once i've started typing but what does happen is that after posting a carefully thought out response, i'm most of the time met with half baked insults, i don't really care about replies as much as sharing my opinion and sometimes i delete my post if too many people can't control themselves.

I regularly write replies to people, or threads, on this forum and then just close the tab before hitting post. Occasionally do it with tweets too, but less often.

Less than 1 out of 10? There's a lot of negativity in the world so I always try to keep my tweets positive when interacting with people.

If someone posts something that annoys me I ignore it instead of trying to start shit. It's extra motivation to assume a potential future employer will search past tweets.

Often enough that I no longer post on most social media. A big part of it is I really dislike getting into internet arguments. They’re so unproductive and invariably give me low-key anxiety for no obvious reason. I enjoy a good face-to-face argument but something about the anonymity and the ease of derailment/trolling in online debates puts me on edge.

About 20% of the time I think, "no that's too much" or I'll write something and then see it and think it's a bit too spicy for my feed.

It kinda double sucks that now with Twitter I have to also consider that with likes as well as RTs, but I'll still sometimes 'like' stuff that I wouldn't RT. If it shows up in someone else's feed, blame the Twitter algorithms.

Never

0/10? Infrequent enough that I can't recall a single instance of it. The closest I come to this is when something IRL pulls me away and the moment is lost by the time I get back so I don't bother to finish forming a post.

My urge to prove someone wrong is usually strong enough to write something, but rarely strong enough to actually post it.

I don't really do social media, very rarely I will look at twitter, and even rarer do I comment on it. I do post comments on other sites though, and this is really the only forum I post on. If it's Youtube I just say whatever the hell I want, it's youtube we are all scum there. On here I'm the most civil. Usually my comments on other sites are a mix between civil and a rant if whatever upset me. On those sites that I'm about to rant on rarely I will do a double take at what I wrote, and just close the site without posting it. I don't do that often though.

I generally don't post much on social media. generally either someone else has said it better, or my .02 isn't really needed/beneficial. So I'd say 9/10 ten times where I think about writing something, I don't and move on

to everyone who thinks before they click submit- i salute you. the world needs more of that 'is this a good idea?' energy.

answering personally: i answered 'every time' since i have no social media presence to speak of. there are things i sometimes consider expressing- but then i realize the world doesn't need another voice shouting into the void, and i don't have the energy or interest in maintaining an audience.

I think people that post on social media are the worst. If you think what’s spinning around in your head is original or worth putting out there anonymously to build or destroy is a fools errand. You’re posting into a void. The only take online topic worth a damn is videogames because through all the drama we will play everything and recognize that we have our own preferences. If your online persona hates PlayStation, Tekken, wii fit, or whatever the soup dujour is you know that you are curious and have formed your and yours alone opinion. It’s nice to argue inconsequential thing everything else is dumb.

I have had such situations very often, especially since I always worry that the posts I put will be liked by my followers who are in large numbers, so if I want them to keep following me, I must not disappoint them. I remember that at first, I was looking for how to buy real Instagram likes because I didn't know how else to have many followers and I even managed because I reached the "explore page" and many came in to see what my site represents, they also appreciated me and followed. The whole process on Instagram is very captivating, I love it madly

At least half the time! Before it was always self doubt, like maybe I don't remember what I think I do (a movie, game, comic, etc.) and I don't wanna correct or act like I know something and be proven wrong. Lately its been more fear of being misunderstood, political climate has it so you can't disagree with ANYTHING even a little or you're a fascist, racist, nazi, leftist, rightist, homophobic gay, smarty pants idiot, etc. Like, you can't do anything right. I almost didn't post this but I feel like Giant Bomb is a safe enough space to make this observation.

More and more as I get older. And I'm much happier for it.

Yeah all the time.

It's the only benefit a platform has in communication, you can see what you are saying and have a crucial moment of "Wait a minute..." instead of just having it tumble right out your mouth.

Not that I'm particularly great at it, I'm much more of a edit after the fact kinda person than actually catching myself beforehand but I do try.

It's not entirely pointless. That just isn't fair. How else will AI know how best to market to you? How else will twitter or facebook know what posts to suggest to you? How else will youtube know exactly what video should play next?

Think of the AI, think of yourself. You wouldn't want to read something objectionable to you, would you? Make your echo chamber *that much better*. Only you can do it!