I've been blogging for some time now. I started in 2007 writing mostly business stuff for Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, the company that owned Publisher's Weekly, which is now defunct. Then I moved to Psychology Today and Huffington Post where I still write mostly about business, although occasionally, I end up in different categories such as, Health, Living, Relationships, etc.... You know, the softer side of things.
Nowadays writing online is only half the story though. The other half is the ubiquitous nature of comment boards, the comments themselves and the people who write them. As a reader, when it comes to mass market media outlets, I avoid them merely because they tend to degrade the conversation and poison the air we breathe. They leave me wondering why people are so hateful and eager to spew venom, so I stay away.
Nothing so toxic as that has ever happened on any of my blogs, although I will say that even still, there is an odd pattern that I have yet to figure out. It is by no means the norm. In fact, it occurs only in the slightest minority, but nonetheless, it happens enough for me to notice and wonder what's going on with some people.
See, what happens is that woven into the normal, healthy and productive thread of comments, one or two will inevitably emerge where someone takes it upon him or herself to start analyzing me, or profiling, or something that is hard to explain but also clearly a little off. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I do know that it is very strange since suddenly a debate is on the table about what I'm feeling or meant to say, as opposed to it being about the ideas and concepts in the context of what I actually did say. So, basically they make things up in their own minds and assert them as fact, having no real idea of what they are talking about. Why? They have even gone so far as to predict my future, define who I am, label my emotions and ascribe meaning to my words that simply isn't there. At first I found it a little disturbing. Now, I find it fascinating to see the propensity with which people feel the need to impose themselves, insert themselves or get involved on a personal level with a stranger, and the extent to which they do so anonymously on something as impersonal as a blog post.
So what gives? Do they not notice that they are a glaring deviation from the norm? Overstepping, intrusive and inappropriate? Is it narcissism? Insecurity? A lack of identity? Or, is it just an inability to let people be and figure out how they can contribute to the situation in a positive way from there? No idea, but as my publicist aptly puts it, "That's what the delete button is for."
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Note: Sorry everyone. Ironically, we had to shut comments down on this one. We had a problem. If you'd like to share, you can "email blogger," and I can respond to you that way. Apologies.
