Sometimes it is
better to remain silent and have others wonder about your true abilities than
to speak and remove all doubt.
Donna Fontenot
is one of my favorite people I’ve met online. She has a unique perspective on
the seo community and articulates it well at Seo-scoop. This past week she
wrote an impassioned post about the negative aspect of the new world social
media and her decision to remove herself from it. I
Refuse To Participate In The Vicious Nastiness Going On In Our Industry
While I applaud
the attempt at raising the awareness of social responsibility in others and
admire her having the intestinal fortitude to take a stand, I doubt it will
have much impact on actually decreasing the daily drama such is social media.
Don’t get me
wrong, there will be plenty of support from her readers and passer-bys who are
attracted to the theme of the post as they feel the same way, at the moment at least. A lot of people all agreeing that yes, it is a
problem and they are happy to see someone speak out and maybe even wish they
had said it first.
You see, it’s easy to champion a lofty ideal as long as it
is from a detached position because we all know it’s the way it SHOULD be. That’s cool and all but I
still don’t see much changing. Probably not for the reasons you may be thinking
though.
Moments
after publishing her mini-rant against the vicious, nasty cr@p blogging, (Donna’s
words,not mine. I love the way she can make her descriptions almost eloquent in their brutality), someone promoted it on Sphinn,
http://sphinn.com/story/60431 where
it quickly went hot and gained several supportive comments. One of the comments
I felt summed up the general attitude of a lot of people not actively involved
in any dispute perceived to be referenced in the post. The comment was:
We're destroying and
abusing the very nature of social media. Which is ironic when so many of
the articles we produce ourselves describe processes to leverage social media.
I tried to post
a comment myself but somehow my comments keep getting cut off after just one or
two lines.
{planting
tongue firmly in cheek }
I’m probably
banned and only allowed to post two lines because my posts are too long. That
would be discrimination and I’d like to do the research to prove it but I lack
the time and motivation that Mr. Lewis has to make my case The
Sphinn Exposé
***********************************
What I was
wanting to say was simply this:
"It isn't a thing that "we" can destroy. It is what it is. By
definition, it is the actions and reactions of humans being in a social
environment.
It simply reflects what it is that makes us human. I think that is sad and more
than a little scarry but it simply is what it is. When you say “we’re destroying
the very nature of social media”, the thing is that the entire topic of this
post IS the very nature of social media."
We all have the right to choose to participate or not and Donna has publicly
announced her decision. I applaud her and desperately hope it helps to raise
the bar on online social etiquette ---- but I doubt it.
The Lord of
the Flies wasn’t so much fiction after all. Backstabbing, false accusations, hateful
comments used to make a weak point, those things all live within the realm of
human emotional responses. Now, couple those human frailties with perceived
anonymity AND an element of promotional value and ------- HELLOOOO ugly underbelly !
For me, I choose not to
participate except in very rare cases, (and those cases usually offer an
opportunity to benefit some goal or objective of my own), but rather observe,
accept and use the data to formulate strategic plans to capitalize on the cause
and effects.
When you see vicious, nasty cr@p, publicly displayed online, what you are seeing
is what we all really are. At least online no one is actually getting
physically harmed and personal property isn’t being destroyed. It is all just
emotional responses. And I never forget that it is emotional responses that
sells things. Not search engines, not blogs, not twitter. People being people is what makes it all happen
and when it is ugly, I always try to remind myself that ugly can be a stimuli as can beauty and both
can make a sale.
You see, no one
wants to be made to look foolish. No one wants to be hurtful for no good reason
and no one wants to see themselves as “bad” people.
BUT, we DO
all want to be respected, validated, rich, powerful, happy, satisfied, oh yeah,
and we all want our link bait to work like a charm.
While the
guru completely agrees with Ms Fontenot’s choice to not participate, the Guru
also suggests you remember:
#1. Your words
online represent who you really are
#2. Other
peoples words online represent who they really are
#3. Once words
are published online, they follow you probably forever
#4. As much
as we’d like to believe in the ultimate goodness of mankind, there is a dark
side in us all and that dark side is as strong a motivator as the light.
Peace Y’all!
G
If ya cain’t say nuthin
good bout somebody ----- make sure ya cover yer ass!