Last week one savvy member of the Up North County Farm Bureau texted me an urgent-sounding plea for guidance. A “friend” of hers on social media had posted a link to an online article blaming “factory farms” for everything from COVID and climate change to the Beatles breaking up and Taco Bell discontinuing the Mexican Pizza. Twice.
I exaggerate, but her concern was genuine and warranted — and provided a timely reminder of some online fundamentals.
Opening the link she sent, my first impression was that the website had a cheap look to it — clunky and dated — not elegantly streamlined, but more like “This is what a $50 website looks like.” By now most of us have surfed enough web pages to know that their overall look and feel has improved dramatically over time. (At web.archive.org you can see what your favorite website looked like years and years ago. It’s spotty but quickly proves the point that websites have gone from Bea Arthur to Beyonce in no time.)
The article itself was full of predictable arguments attacking modern livestock production practices, and leaned heavily on the inflammatory but meaningless “factory farm” label. Long story short, there was nothing there you haven’t heard, read or seen before.
Way down at the bottom there was a link to an entirely different website where the article had been originally published. That site was a different story: professional, polished and slick, with big photos, sharp design, clean fonts and embedded videos — the works.
Uh-oh. That site’s got a big reach, too. It’s credible, well-established and easy on the eyes. This could be bad!
Then I saw the good news in the dateline: summer 2020. It’s not long ago in real time, but in Internet time that’s just old. And if it took almost two years for this piece to hit MFB’s antennae in Lansing, it means it never got much traction in the first place.
Either way, the advice to our savvy member Up North was predictable and routine: let it slide. Avoid the temptation to react or respond, because (a) doing so will only give the piece more attention than it deserves and (b) online wars of words very rarely change minds or move needles.
The two fundamental tenets of advisable, common-sense behavior here are as follows:
- Count to 10… Don’t write in anger… Look before you leap… All the familiar advice your parents had about not reacting too hastily to a potentially risky or contentious situation.
- Instead of trying to convert extremists way over on the other side of the bell curve, focus your efforts on the “moveable middle,” meaning the countless folks whose opinions about modern agriculture are either undecided or non-existent.
Finally, let’s hear a warm round of applause for our member from Up North who calmly phoned a real friend instead of unloading online with both barrels. It’s one thing to feel that way — perfectly normal! — but another to act on it.
And remember you can always call your favorite MFB staffer for a gut check if you’re unsure how to proceed. We work for you!