When former Spice Girl singer Gerry Halliwell heard that Margaret Thatcher had died, she Tweeted to the effect that Mrs T had been an advocate of Girl Power (the Spice Girls' motto).
It didn’t take long for a huge outpouring of “Oh no she wasn’t!” comments to flow in—most of them stated a lot less politely than that.
Halliwell removed her tweet and apologized.
I’m wondering whether she took her Tweet down because she realized she’d been wrong or because she didn’t like getting negative messages from fans.
My guess is it’s the latter.
Very few people like it when somebody, much less loads of
others, disagree with us or call us names. As you know, the anonymity of the
internet can bring out the worst in people. Reading the comments on newspaper
sites or blog posts on which anonymous comments are allowed makes you despair
for the human race.
This is relevant here because when you write something—a book, a blog, an article, a short story—it will bring out the haters. With luck it’ll also bring out some people who like what you do, but they’re less likely to express themselves. Anger and frustration are stronger drivers than appreciation.
This is an aspect of writing that I’m having to get used to myself. I don’t like being disliked—and negative comments on the internet seldom make the distinction between an opinion or a creative project and the person who created it.
If you’re going to put something out into the world you’ll have to get used to it, too.
A useful method: Think sympathetically about how much bile the person who makes these kinds of comments must have in their system for it to overflow so easily.
PS: I just spotted this article on Reuters: "Rudeness and throwing insults are cutting online friendships short, with a survey on Wednesday showing people are getting ruder on social media and two in five users have ended contact after a virtual altercation."
The article quotes Joseph Grenny, co-chairman of the company that conducted the survey: "...manners haven't caught up with technology.What is really so surprising is that so many people disapprove of this behavior but people are still doing it. Why would you name-call online but never to that person's face?"
How to solve the problem? The article says Grenny suggested "three rules that could improve conversations online were to avoid monologues, replace lazy, judgmental words, and cut personal attacks particularly when emotions were high."
