Back from a brief, self-reflective vacation and what a week it has been.
After spending 4 glorious days off of social media as I wandered the streets of colonial Williamsburg, VA (pics are on my Google Plus page for those connected with me), I woke up Tuesday morning to quite the tweet-storm regarding a piece, of which something I had written was the catalyst, intended to invoke a certain amount of humor that instead incited a viral riot.
I’m not going to link to any of the posts or even name any names of what’s going on because if you’re not aware of the circumstances then I envy you because this has made me miss the serenity of colonial times.
I encourage all my followers, solely based on my own hope for a better tomorrow, to examine the sheer amount of negativity build up in these kinds of things. The original post had quite a bite to it that, unintentional or not, really hit hard at a lot people’s personal backgrounds and experiences. That was then followed with more than one defensive post that were referencing the intention on how literal the message was meant to be.
I’ve taken many hits in the last year because there would be one word, phrase, or sentence that I wrote where someone would find fault or take issue. The overall message of the post then became lost in the debate over a minute detail. This turns work that is intended to carry a certain amount of positivity, or at least a larger message, into perpetual fighting and debating.
I’m happy to have a discussion with people, but when new pieces of content are continually met with such negativity, isn’t it possible that we might be discouraging other voices from stepping up to share their knowledge and experience for fear of verbose execution?
So with that I will share a concept that I would love to see more people adopt – regardless of industry.
We are all fallible
We all make mistakes and missteps
We cannot always be right about everything
There are bigger and more important things in life than disproving our industry compatriots
Negativity breeds upon itself and spreads. When the focus of energy is spent more in reacting than creating, perhaps it’s time to look inward and see what it is we have to share and give that first.
