Recently, I have become more active on social media, joining
the conversation online. I am active in other things, but literally as a
freelance writer, it is my job to sit behind a laptop and write a bunch of
articles, so why not interact with other readers and writers online? I've
discovered I can go a little overboard, so mentally I've set up a mini
guideline for myself.
We all have opinions and at one point, in our social interaction
life we engage in digital dialogue which includes commentary. To be clear, I am
talking about the comments left underneath article. We enjoy giving our
feedback, criticisms and leaving comments below articles.
It seems that the commentators of these digital
conversations can range from the well informed contributor to the downright
rude and unintelligent mass of cyber bullies. I consider myself, an informed
contributor who is very opinionated but open to conversation but definitely not
a cyber bully.
Think before you write and relax, it's just a comment!
Think before you write and relax, it's just a comment!
However, I am learning not to take my commenting efforts too
seriously. It’s in my nature to be passionate, have an impulsive reaction which
may involve me hurriedly putting together a tirade of words to get my point
across. Avoid this! Commenting requires time and thought. You want a concise,
correctly punctuated comment with facts. There are other readers out there who
are just as knowledgeable and you don’t want to be made a mockery of online.
You can't take back a tweet!
You can't take back a tweet!
More seriously, with the internet, the world is even smaller.
The internet has come a long way since the 90’s, a never ending black hole of
information that is stored away in the secret libraries, amassing a host of classified
information. It is important to choose your words carefully while posting
comments. The grammar police are not the only ones watching out for
illegal activity, they might be concerned about the abusive use of the apostrophe
but you may find yourself in an actual police station, if you are tweeting
inappropriate one liners. It wasn't so long ago when a boy was arrested for
tweeting distasteful remarks on the British
olympic swimmer, Tom Daley's performance.
If you were wrong, there's no point in bickering!
I recently commented on article to do with colorism in
Brazil and a day later I checked to see what the responses were and oh my oh
my, I was accused of ‘white racism’. I’m assuming the individual who replied
was white so I won’t even get into that.
One thing I hate when reading comments, yes, if you engage
in commenting, you have a tendency to read them too. I hate the bickering over
useless arguments. Although useless arguments are subjective, I think the
bickering is a result of becoming even more defensive when you are in the wrong
and someone has called you out on your inaccuracy. As soon as I was accused of white racism, I
simply ignored the individual and continued about my day until this post. I don’t
consider myself a racist, well, I’m sure all racists don’t consider themselves
as racist either but hey! There was no point of replying the enthusiastic commenter;
I doubt we will ever meet. Besides the commentator’s
accusatory statement, he made other observations which were valid. I am not
perfect, I must admit the comment I made was flawed and it could have been
written in a clearer and coherent manner to avoid confusion but it wasn’t and
life goes on.
Now for the comments. J