Entrepreneur.com: "Keyboard courage" has some people posting cruel things they would otherwise not say to someone's face. Hiding behind a screen is not a shield.
As a social-media consultant and strategist, I have seen my fair share of rude behavior on various platforms and personally experienced this on several occasions. Everything from gossiping, not following through with deliverables and jealousy has come my way. While my first reaction is to fire back, I have learned this isn't an appropriate response. By firing back in social media, this is exactly what feeds the beast. Don't feed the beast!
2 comments:
Social media has both its positive sides and its negative sides. I worked as a digital media intern for a top 40’s radio station in Boston (#10 market) for a year and did a lot of social media management so I do have some experience in this field. There are only so many things you can do in a situation such as this. Obviously, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. If it is strictly an opinion statement, I say leave it be. If it is personal attack or you have determined that it warrants a response, the tips in this article are perfect guidelines. It is extremely important to stay professional in all responses and even posts, especially when posting for a business or group. As an individual it is ok to get a little more creative but you must remember to be respectful. Most of all you must remember that usually these arguments are not worth your time and you should choose your battles very carefully. Getting into worthless arguments online is not a help to you as a person you’re the company you may be working for. You have to remember that criticism is a part of life and as long as it is not a personal attack you should almost always just let it go.
As someone who is more or less growing up on the internet, a lot of this seems to be the fairly standard rule, “don’t feed the trolls.” People hide behind their screen and try to start arguments and get a rise out of people, they will focus on the targets that works. It is basically the same idea as bullies; they will focus on the people whose buttons they can push. This article does bring up the fact one needs to act differently when interacting online with people they could potentially meet in real life. It is one thing to block someone who bugs you and never see them again, but I agree that it is worth considering the awkwardness that would result if you met. Tran doesn’t give any advice on where to draw the line, and I wish she did. I would think it switches when the other person has been so rude it would be uncomfortable or problematic to met them whether you block them or not, but I have very little experience interacting online with people that I might meet. I typically tend to stick to talking with people I already know.
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