Negativity - Everyone's a critic

There's a lot of negativity online and I suppose that most of us have become used to it, but why?

I'm used to a constant stream of negativity and criticism in my personal life, the constant pressure from someone who should be supporting me in doubting my ability in everything I do. It's means that when I get that negativity and criticism online from someone who isn't prepared to reveal their identy, I think, "so what!"  They have a long way to go before they will be able to ruin my day, let alone my weekend or week.

And this is what I want to talk about (obviously because of something that has happened to me, but I wont be talking about that). Why do people feel the need to be negative? Personally I think it's because it's easier to look at faults in others than to see your own faults, it's easier to pick on someone than listen to your own doubts and insecurities.

Social media allows everyone to do that, and criticise anyone, at anytime, but always people they have never met. If you start working in social media, get used to it, it will happen and y need to ignore it. It's far too easy for something you say to be taken out of context, and what ymmight think is a balanced and fair reply, can be twisted and used against you. If a stranger was rude to you as you walked down the street, would you respond?

Of course not, you would carry on with your life. If a stranger said to you that your clothes were ugly, would it bother you?  No, what do you care about their opinion?  It's your life, you live it your way.

You have to treat your business social media account the same way. Rudeness and criticism should be ignored when it comes from an online source.

It's Better To Try And Fail Than Not Try At All

I think it's said best here, and worth a read;

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt, excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic"

It's business, not personal

Rudeness. How to handle someone who's rude on social media
This is an interesting area as a lot of people seem to think that because they can use any name, no one will know who they are, but it simply isn't true. I know of one case where someone was beyond rude, and not only was he tracked down, he was stupid enough to post personal details which made it easier to confirm who it was. We're not talking about the police or private investigators or some clever IT people here either. It was just a bunch of kids annoyed that a friend had been insulted. Basically its very easy to find them is what I'm saying here.

So, a few people were very rude to me, but also very stupid. I gave them the chance to back down, they didn't want to because they were too committed to the cause, and were made to look stupid(including an MP, and I really enjoyed that).  Well they accepted that, or at least one of them has, and they apologised.  A couple of others have sort of jumped on the band wago while using it to make digs at me. So now I have a decision to make.

Do I accept the apology or not? I do want to accept the first apology, I think it was genuine and deserves respect. The others............ I don't respect them, they can't say it honestly, so I feel reluctant to acknowledge it, but I want us to take the moral high ground.

I think the problem is that although its business, social media is personal. It's not me they hate, or at least not directly, they hate what I represent, in this respect, they hate the idea of change. But the hate is directed at me, and as I represent the 'whole' on social media, the hate is sometimes directed at me alone. I've been hated by people before and you know what, by deal. I don't care about their opinion. There's a saying that's been doing the rounds online for a few weeks and it really is true, 'a tiger isn't concerned with the opinions of sheep'.

So if you are getting hate directed at you, by trolls or whoever, ask yourself this, do you really care? Who is this person to you? Unless it's someone who's opinion you respect, or someone you care about, fuck 'em!

Just don't do it literally, then they'd really hate you.

Be wrong, lie or be bland?

Sometimes in social media something happens that makes you frown, then turns it upside down. In this case something happened, all normal, nothing special, just routine business. But there's a little group of people who really hate what is happening with my work (this is nothing bad btw, it's about making things better. In this case if I asked you how we worked, you would be so very wrong, but as for how we will, you've just described it).

So this routine thing, someone told someone, who told someone, and the facts became not just a little wrong, but so wrong that it wasn't recognisable, but this group were positive it was true. Even when the people who were there told them they were wrong, they couldn't believe it. 'You mean the emperor is naked? Don't be stupid, I know, I know, I know!'  They are so entrenched in their view they really can't see the wood for the trees. Right now they are arguing with someone online about it, and he is even saying why I will rarely bother to talk to them. Quite simply, they just aren't worth the effort.

And this is my point for social media people, you will always get idiots who think if they shout, you must listen.  Well I've never seen any PC, Mac, smart phone, tablet or any device to access social media without a mute button. If I want to, I can ignore them very easily. It's also worth remembering that on social media, you can see everything, they can never hide what they say.

If you get a lot of mentions on twitter, you might think it means something, means you're making waves. But if it's the same people retweeting and retweeting again, and again, what are you achieving? It's not a lot of mentions, you're shouting in a sound proofed room.

But if you open a window and try to shout outside, the first thing you must do is the very thing that every journalist does, check your facts. The only thing worse in journalism than being wrong is to lie (or steal someone's byline, but that's another story).  Both amount to the same thing as soon as you've done either, your credibility means nothing. Everything you say after is called into question because you were wrong. If you lie about being wrong, then you just look stupid.

So my main point here is this, if you run social media accounts for your company, always tell the truth. No one will die if you tell the truth. If you don't want to tell the truth, say nothing.

Would you rather be bland or wrong?

Your opinion is wrong

Social media is kind of weird. You have to keep creating interesting content to keep people hooked, and of course there are the people who get annoyed with you. Everything says you should try and talk to those you upset, but to be honest, I can't be arsed with that. Quite simply some people are too stupid to engage with. A very intelligent man once said, that stupid questions should be ignored. A very wise statement.

So anyway, this very small group of people don't like me, or to be fair, they don't like that their argument is so weak it needs them to shout and be insulting when they don't like the answers. I'm a great believer in science and what it can teach us, and it teaches us one thing, to change our minds. We once thought that we sat at the centre of the universe with the stars spinning around us. We now know that is wrong, and we changed our minds. This is because facts change opinions.  No matter how strong our opinions are, opinions cannot change facts.

It's important to remember that, and that you will sometimes need to change your mind. I'm not an expert,but I understand that if I want facts I go to the experts, who give me the facts that will change my mind. If I don't like those facts, my opinion is wrong.

And this what I'm getting at. If you work in social media, then you have to put up with those people, the trolls. It's a pain in the arse, but then so is sitting on an uncomfortable chair, and I'd rather do that than stand all day.

It's an opinion and a fact.