For many years now I have been regularly publishing articles and sharing posts to my social media accounts. From day one I have striven to only write and share posts that are positive, lighthearted, and uplifting—rather than negative, hurtful, or demeaning.
Of course, I am the first to admit that I am far from perfect, and may have unintentionally strayed into “unfriendly territory” on rare occasions, but on the whole, I have kept my online discourse courteous and respectful.
Even so, it is virtually impossible in this day and age to share anything online that everyone will agree with and appreciate! I was reflecting on this several months ago after a certain post I shared on LinkedIn received thousands of interactions and hundreds of comments. While the great majority of comments were positive and affirming, there were quite a few commenters who appeared to have chimed in solely to leave a snide remark or make it clear that they didn’t like some aspect of what I had posted.
As I scrolled through the comments on that particular post and thought about my social media newsfeeds in general, I made the following five observations:
- People love heroes and praise those who help others.
- People really connect to personal stories, particularly if they themselves can personally relate to the story.
- People applaud strong character and hard work, and most (though not all) people are even willing to overlook flaws and failures when they recognize undeniable goodness and generosity in a person.
- There will always be the haters and trolls, eager to make a snide comment or point out failures and flaws.
- But positivity is more powerful and far-reaching than negativity!
None of these observations are particularly surprising or groundbreaking, but they do help me keep social media in perspective. As with everything, there are positives and negatives; and there will always be “the good, the bad, and the ugly!” I choose to continue focusing on and sharing the positive and the good, and letting the negatives, the bad, and the ugly just roll off!
How about you, how do you keep it all in perspective as you navigate social media?
