Thursday 7 January 2016

Negative comments

seem to be the only thing some people post on social media and comment forums.
I came across another one this morning. This time it was directed at me. The person who made it had not read what I had to say very carefully. He assumed I was saying one thing when I was, quite clearly, saying something else. Other people had understood me and commented favourably. He was not happy about this. 
I have "blocked" him. I can't be bothered with that sort of negative behaviour. But, it did set me thinking.
Last year I sat down and wrote a short autobiography of my childhood. A few people have read it and later this year it will be given to the person who requested I write it for an archive of such things. 
One of the people who read it is my friend R... She is a retired doctor and former politician. I like her a lot. She has a sense of humour, an inquiring mind and a realistic view of the world.
"It amazes me you turned out the way you did," she told me, "I'd understand if you hated some people."
What, I asked her, is the point of hating anyone? I don't think I actually hate anyone. I hate the things some people do but I don't think I hate anyone I actually know. As for anyone else, I'll reserve judgment until I meet them. 
I don't necessarily like everyone I know. I would prefer not to spend time with some people - and I don't spend time with them by choice even if I must spend time with them by necessity. "Hate" though seems to me to be such a negative emotion I don't want to waste energy indulging in it.
But I do try not to spend time on social media or comment forums being consistently negative. So, why do people do it? 
I have, out of curiosity, taken a look at the "profiles" of a number of such people. By that I mean I have run my eye down a fairly lengthy list of their comments - such people tend to be frequent commenters - to see what sort of comments they make to other people. Some of them seem to post "smart" comments at every opportunity. They seem to trawl through a post on a news website and make a negative comment about almost every other response there. If someone is foolish enough to disagree with them they get upset. They are prolific but don't really contribute to any discussion.
I wonder who these people are. What are they like in real life? Do they use social media in this way because they lack friends in real life? If so, I think I feel sorry for them.
Social media can be fun. For the most part I enjoy it. I haven't sought out a huge number of "followers" or "friends". I don't feel the need to do that. I like to think that I might one day meet some of the people who have been kind enough to comment here and elsewhere. I suspect I will like them. I also think that I should treat people here and elsewhere in just the same way as I would treat the people I have face to fact contact with on a daily basis. 
So, if you are reading this, "Hello."

3 comments:

Vanessa Gebbie said...

Hello back! Social media is fun, can be useful. But as you say, some people seem to be unable to use it positively. Sad for them, not the rest. x

catdownunder said...

hello Vanessa - have been rather "lazy" about commenting on other people's blogs of late but meant to tel you that the questionnaire was rather marvellous!

Anonymous said...

Some people set out to get up other people's noses. To me it is a weird thing to want to do. I would rather make no comment, but I was brought up to not say anything if I couldn't say something nice, or at least something which might raise a smile if not a laugh.