The internet can be a harsh and cruel place, especially when it comes to sharing your artwork, opinions, or creative activities with people from all over the world.
It’s a sad reality of life that plenty of viewers and readers are ready to start tapping their keyboards with words that will hurt, hit home, and break your confidence to the core to a big degree, and this is something that you should prepare yourself for.
Continue reading for some professional guidance on how to deal with noisy users of your content if you have been the focus of an unhappy customer, an unpleasant review, a nasty comment, or even a direct message (DM), which has caused you to feel outraged and stew over the matter.
To begin, I would like to make it quite apparent that I have firsthand experience with each of the things that have been stated so far, in addition to a great many more. If you have a YouTube channel that is dedicated to film photography, you are going to receive a lot of comments, and you can take my word for it when I say that some of them won’t be very kind.
On Fstoppers, I have seen both beneficial debate and some vicious and seemingly senseless criticism of the title of an article, all the way up to the author’s perspective or work. The criticism ranges from the title of the article all the way up to the author’s perspective or work.
If you expose yourself to the world, you should be prepared to deal with the unsettling reality that others will likely treat you in the same manner in which they have treated others, if you put yourself out there. Haters are going to be haters, but if you want to show me that I’m wrong, all you have to do is click the comment button and give it to me. If you really want to prove my point to me, though, you’ll have to do more than that.
Put an end to it in a manner that displays some civility.
This tactic appears to be some wishy-washy way that you are advised to employ at school when all you want to do is get revenge on that child for torturing you throughout the course of the year. I have it now. Although I am the type of person who firmly believes in the concept of “giving back what you receive,” I have found that when it comes to interacting with other people on the internet, this tactic does not always provide the best results.
Before going for the computer to produce a response that may do more harm than good, I would recommend that you take a time to relax, take a few long, deep breaths, and then look at this circumstance from a new point of view. This is something you should do before reaching for the computer.
It is quite possible that this person was disrespectful, slightly to extremely insulting, snarky, or just plain unpleasant. It is also possible that this person was simply plain disagreeable. There is a very good chance that this will take place. If you are able to rise above their cruelty, there is no reason not to respond to it in a manner that is both kind and professional.
This leaves the commenter with little to no space to continue playing the cruel game, and it immediately gives you the image that you are a more civilized person who is able to maintain your composure under duress. In addition, it is unlikely to be what the commenter is anticipating, and it provides them with very little opportunity to do so.
Be kind, be polite, address their concern, and explain why it’s okay that they don’t like your work, don’t agree with you, or think your voice, editing style, writing, opinion, or just about anything else they can criticize isn’t up to their standard. This applies to just about anything else that they can criticize as well.
If people are able to find fault with anything, it most likely does not live up to their expectations. Due to the fact that the burn will be neutralized, you will emerge from this unharmed and without the need for any petty back and forth as a result of this.
There is some anecdotal evidence to show that when used in the actual world, this method has a high rate of success. This is the strategy that I employ the vast majority of the time on the comments section of YouTube, and I have discovered that it is the technique that yields the best results, short of completely ignoring the content in question.
My own experience has proven that it has the power to alter people’s attitudes and causes them to reflect on how disrespectful, flippant, or offensive they may have been in the past. This is something that has the potential to change.
It acts as a reminder to them that you are, in fact, a person, and as a consequence, they either pull back somewhat, change their tune, or are just nicer in the future. All of these outcomes are good outcomes that we would all like to see more of in the future. A once-cruel commenter eventually became one of the site’s regulars who always left kind remarks thanks to my efforts.
The fact that this commenter has evolved into such a beautiful person and that they have been nice enough to send me a pair of lenses as a gift is an evidence that “killing it with kindness” is an effective strategy. It’s always lovely when other people surprise you, and it’s a really nice sensation when you can change something bad into something amazing. But the best feeling of all comes when you can surprise yourself. I really hope that those of you who still shoot analog are having a good time with this pun on words.
Block and Delete
This is the complete opposite of the strategy that was just covered, and there is a good explanation for why this is. There are times when a person is so cynical and cynical that not even a spoonful of your sweet, sugary, rainbow words would coax an ounce of kindness out of them. In these situations, you should not waste your time trying to convince them of anything. In predicaments such as this one, I always say these three things to both you and to myself:
Block. And. Delete. This is something that I have done in the past and something that I will continue to do throughout the life of my career on the internet, which I hope will be a long one. Indicators that a comment should be restricted or removed include, but are not limited to, the following, but others as well:
direct messages (DMs) or any other type of personal contact directly to you with a tone that is nasty, accusatory, mean, threatening, or defamatory should be reported immediately.
A persistent attack in any form that takes place online, when the person doing it has made it pretty obvious that they have some kind of Internet vendetta against you and the job that you do. This can take the shape of harassment, threats, or other forms of cyberassault. Bye.
A sleazy, below-the-belt, uninvited attempt to partner with you, meet up with you, phone you, or confine your work and your production to the way you seem or portray yourself. This is an attempt that is made below the belt. This attitude is likewise completely unwelcome.
Since we are all adults in this room, I’m sure it goes without saying; nonetheless, it’s incredibly easy to get caught up in defending oneself since it’s so natural to feel the need to do so. Putting in the effort to draught, erase, and retype the ideal vengeance answer when, in fact, the other person isn’t worth your time and is succeeding at all they set out to achieve is a waste of effort.
refocusing all of your attention away from your photography, writing, work, and other pursuits, and placing it instead on them and the critical remarks they make about you, rather than focusing on your own work.
Someone questioned me about it in a direct message on Instagram not so long ago, asking why it is that my girlfriend takes better pictures than I do. This information came as a shock to me. After that, he went on to explain to me that the reason for this is that he only uses “real” cameras in his work. I’m curious as to what you believe became of him. He was kicked out of the programme and denied further participation.
Taking Stock of the Positive Aspects of Life
As a result, I was watching a YouTuber by the name of Matt D’Avella, who has millions of subscribers and is really successful, when I had the idea for this strategy.
The advice that he provided was that you should make a folder to store all of the laudatory remarks about your work that you have received via email, and that you should consult this folder whenever you need a reminder of how many wonderful things people have said about your work. He suggested that you do this so that you can recall how many wonderful things people have said about your work whenever you feel the need to do so.
Because we are human, the negative aspects of our environment are literally built into our brains, making it easier for us to focus on them. Think about the power of your words and how much more likely you are to complain about a poor experience to the people you care about than you are to brag about a pleasant one.
It is so simple to have all of these nice, positive, and encouraging comments surrounding your work and feel pleased with yourself, only to receive one negative one and let it override the many pleased customers, clients, viewers, or readers. This can happen because it is so simple to feel pleased with yourself when you have all of these nice, positive, and encouraging comments surrounding your work. Because it is so easy to have all of these beautiful, good, and encouraging remarks surrounding your work, this is something that is able to occur.
You should keep any emails or direct messages that demonstrate why you are good at what you do, how you exceeded expectations, or how you made someone’s day better because they will remind you of the positive aspects and keep you on track to generate that job or experience again in the future for another person.
Don’t let the negative stuff get to you too much, and know that there will always be someone who doesn’t like what you do, doesn’t want to hire you, or doesn’t want to take your workshop or course, and that’s okay! Don’t let the negative stuff get to you too much, and know that there will always be someone who doesn’t like what you do, doesn’t want to hire you, or doesn’t
Spending too much time worrying about what other people might be saying or thinking about you is a waste of time. You can’t be everything to everyone and having the self-awareness to know this can help you shrug it off and move on to doing things that are more useful for both you and the world. You can’t be everything to everyone.
