I was raised in a witty, cutting, aggressive dialogued environment and became a master of it in high school and college. With this background it would be easy to derail conversations for my own purpose. Regardless, I have consciously decided not to do so; one… out of manners and respect for the author, and two… for the possibility to learn something new. I would never lash out with a personal attack or cyber bullying as I see that as a weak and small minded response. I wish that were true of others.

You’ve seen and read these commentator’s… foul language, personal insults, with no regard to intellectual dialogue whatsoever. They try, and many times succeed, in derailing the conversation of a great discussion or article topic towards their own agenda. While I believe everyone is entitled to their opinion they do not. Their ideas are the only ones that count… at least in their own limited mind. This cyber bullying trend in conversation is starting to grow exponentially. Especially in social media.

Social media is a great tool to get the word out. Unfortunately many abuse this power. They hide behind their virtual diatribe with virtual bravery. And yet I have always found these assassins of conversation a little less brave when they can’t hide behind an email, blog discussion, or status… when they are confronted live. It is tempting to retaliate.

How easy it would be for me to find their “works” and unmercifully critique, personally attack, comment aggressively against everything they believe and are doing for my personal satisfaction and agenda. Trust me… there are many times that I have thought about doing just that. I simply choose to take the high road… to keep an open mind.

“They hide behind their virtual diatribe with virtual bravery.” -Chris Lott

I had a discouraging experience with biznik.com. Biznik had become a tool to see what interest my articles would attract. My last one offered was on crowdsourcing. Instantly it started to receive very mean-spirited responses (comments). It seems there are some pretty nervous (scared) artists that see this as a direct attack on their industry. The personal attacks starting flying…

Many sites have protections against these types of comments. Technorati.com for example has the warning “Personal attacks are NOT allowed” in their comment section. Most venues at least give me the option to delete a comment on something I wrote. Unfortunately biznik.com did not, or at least it was not made clear if they did. On top of that they immediately put two featured articles that represented anti-crowdsourcing back to back after I pulled mine. Obviously this spotlight on these articles suggests an agenda as to get any article “featured” is very difficult. I canceled my subscription with them after being a paying member for around two years. Disappointing.

Stop Giving Mean-Spirited Comments:

1. Self Control: Hold your personal barbs regardless of how right you are in your message.

2. Self Discipline: Treat others with respect… like you would want to be treated. Put yourself in their shoes before you “impress” them with your rude comments.

3. Education: Act educated even if you’ve never graduated from a college or university.

Social media is such a powerful tool for new concepts, ideas, and general intellectual growth. Show some self-restraint and comment accordingly. We could all learn something new.

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