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One problem I see in social media is the lack of transparency behind our thoughts and ideas. It’s completely understandable because we are dealing with small amounts of information of which we need to extrapolate the entire message. You can’t properly gauge the tone of someones voice or even measure their response by any reasonable standard. So instead, we jump to conclusions and get defensive when someone disagrees with us.

We are all guilty of this including myself.

This is why it is extremely important to be receptive to all the information coming at you and try your best to understand it. Some platforms work better than others because of the tone they set and the amount of conversation actually happening. For example; video sites like UStream and Viddler are much more transparent than Twitter because you get a sense of tone and enough time to explain yourself.

Social media is a melting pot of personality!

What one person sees as an aggressive remark could simply be a light-hearted opinion to another. We all come from different background and we all have our own ideas as to what is socially responsible. However, if we are going to be putting ourselves out there we need to just put on a happy face and do our best to follow along. I mean, just by putting ourselves out there we are subjecting ourselves to the random judgments and opinions of others, so is there ever a “wrong answer”? Everything is open for debate in this space, as it should be.

We are all just trying to communicate and there is no wrong way of going about it. So instead of pointing out each others wrongdoings, lets work harder to learn and grow together. That’s why I am in this space and that’s why I am reaching out to you.

- Photo by kcdsTM

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  • http://www.sterlinglynch.wordpress.com Sterling Lynch

    Excellent observations, and relevant to all aspects of life.

    As you point out, we all come from different micro-cultures and we are all apt to interpret certain expressions or behavior differently.

    In 98% of all cases, if you assume a person is not trying to be adversarial and if you look for points of agreement, you will realize there is very little disagreement and the relevant commentator is well-intentioned.

    Of course, there always will be some exceptions to this rule (the 2% of people who really are being nasty or who are too clueless to understand that they are nasty), but those people will be easily identified if you respond charitably to them and they continue to be nasty. If that happens, ignore him or her. There are too many well-intentioned people out there to bother with the nasty unnecessarily.

    Thanks again for your thoughts!

    • http://www.jonbishop.com Jon Bishop

      Thanks for your comment Sterling.

      I think it is important to put on a friendly face as often as possible both in life and on the internet. Thanks again for commenting.

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  • http://freeandflawed.com Jenn

    Great post! I’m totally guilty of this, but sometimes I don’t remember that the internet takes away tone and it’s hard to judge plain text.