Do you find that it is easier to be negative than positive online? What strategies do you use to counter these impulses?
No doubt most will see the messenger and not the message, but much of IRL is suffering fools whereas online most don’t feel that need.
It’s telling that the youts I’ve advised to tell their dependent peers to “RTFM” are now the angriest or most jaded luddites now. Something about turning 30, managing or too many taps on the shoulder? Who knows.
Today, we seem to reward a benevolent culture that feeds the man (sic) but doesn’t teach them how to fish. And wiki and google have never taught anyone how to be a good fisher(man). And as time goes on, it is now a daily experience to find yourself interacting with someone too lazy to even google or think.
It’s great that I work with some awesome people, and I’ll crawl over glass for them. But the older folks are afraid of email and texts, they’ve been burned too many times with misinterpretation. OK or Kk? What is a 40-something to do? They will never be woke.
So they avoid online and always want to call. The least efficient means of communication is the safest space for them. And it’s always a positive to hear their voice.
A lot of times defensiveness is due to thinking that it’s about us...100% of the times, it’s not.
Online interactions can be exhilaratingly freeing because we don’t have to be held accountable or follow norms. If it seems negative to you, then it means you are holding yourself accountable.
You won’t feel negative if you release yourself from accountability. That’s another way too.
What made my online life more pleasant was cutting out the social media I have no hard need for. The remaining ones I specifically follow only those who post informative/funny/educational stuff.
Any poster with opinions (especially involving politics) are blocked/muted instantly.