Recently I found an old blog of mine, written around one to two years ago. Two years sounds like a very small interval of time, but it is enough to show that I have changed since then. Looking back on this blog, I see forced quirkiness, articles written as knee-jerk reactions and trivial little things I thought mattered.

I’ve now learned is that when you want to get your point across to someone, you have to try to keep your emotions under control. The best way of convincing someone and to have their belief last is to present your side as calmly as possible without editorialising or using biased language.

When headlines come on Reddit with language designed to sway the thinking of the reader, it can have two reactions:

1. The reader absorbs the bias and reads the article in a light they would not have viewed it in if not exposed to the title the submitter gave it. This leads to a possible opinion change on the subject - but is usually dependant on whether the reader was already familiar with the subject at hand.
2. The reader recognises over the top bias and reads the article in the opposite view. This leads to hostility and the real topic at hand becomes less important than should be while the comments fill up about said bias.

What can we learn from this? When trying to think of a title, don’t try and change the wording to fit your own opinion on the subject. When submitting an article, make sure it’s not a knee-jerk reaction to something, something designed as propaganda to sway opinions by force.

Keep the discussion in the comments, keep the decision up to the reader.