When you post something like that on Facebook, you're looking for a little bit of sympathy and letting off some steam. There is nothing wrong with that. It's one of the primary points of Facebook. People began to comment and relate similar tales. Other people gave her some suggestions about how to maybe get some monetary compensation for the situation.
About five comments in, there was an attempted hijacking. Instead of offering sympathy or advice, someone decided to use her post to rant about why all products are bad now because of environmental regulations and this is all the fault of liberals and hippies. This person offered no sympathy or advice of a useful nature. They just used the comments to complain about something political.
I see the kind of comment hijacking quite often on Facebook and I know I've talked about it here on the blog. Someone will post something innocent and free (or at least they assume) of political taint. Others will respond . . . until suddenly that ONE person has to come along and hijack the post over to something about politics or religion or whatever their agenda happens to be. "I had a great day at the park" suddenly becomes "That park won't be safe once Obama outlaws all the guns." More often than not, one of these politically charged statements will lure people who want to argue and suddenly the post about the day in the park is a mile long debate about gun rights.
Have I been guilty of this? Oh yes. I have. I committed many Facebook Sins when I first began to post. I still commit a lot of them even now, but I no longer allow myself to hijack someone's post to rant about issues. It's not polite and it certainly isn't effective communication.
One of the things we have to keep in mind when we're trying to sway people to our way of thinking is that establishing a rapport with someone requires them to be in a receptive mood. Very few people . . . to basically no one . . . is ever going to be in a good mood after a Facebook post gets hijacked. At best they'll be rolling their eyes in annoyance. At worst, they're completely angry. And as per the rules of the internet, all of your carefully considered arguments will be ignored.
People will also have a impression of you as being a certain kind of person. "Oh yeah, you're that chick who took Mary's comment about eating eggs for breakfast and hijacked the comments into an abortion debate." "I remember you. You're the person who just HAD to comment on Bill's picture of him eating a ham sandwich and turn it into some vegan flame war." If this person has never met you before, this is their first impression of you. It's highly unlikely they'll ever form a different one.
Moreover, when you constantly hijack comments so you can push an agenda, people start to think you have very low social skills and no hobbies. I know you think you sound intelligent and well-educated when you make these agenda comments, but that just really isn't the case. You come off as someone sitting in the corner of the room, body prone, eyes wide twitching just slightly as you wait in rapturous anticipation of that moment when someone says something, ANYTHING, that you can relate back to your issues. Kind of like Gollum with an ax to grind.
No, actually worse than that. Gollum was a crazed and sad little creature, but he at least had some joy in his life. He made up songs. He liked riddles. He joyed eating a variety of raw foods and seemed quite impressed with his teeth. He may have been obsessed with the ring and he did die for it, but at least he had SOMETHING else in his life.
So, really, people who hijack Facebook posts are more like Gollum in those few seconds before the end of his life. Sad, fixated, unaware of the big picture, and in dire need to make sure the Precious is his. . . . even if it means going down in flames.
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