Criticism is a part of life. No one likes being criticised, but it happens and generally, we learn from it. Maybe the soup was too salty, or your pitch not quite good enough, or the campaign you’re working on got knocked back. Maybe you got the wrong socks out from the drawer, or sent the wrong letter to a client. Needless to say, criticism is going to happen.
In real life, it stings a bit, but we usually get over it and get better at what we’re doing.
The thing is, critics aren’t evil people hating monsters and we don’t tend to believe that they are when they show up in real life. Sure, we might fantasise a bit about a voodoo doll full of pins, but when the sting wears off, we’re left with the constructive bits that we can learn from.
So, why is it that as soon as someone online pops up and is even the slightest bit critical of anything, everyone jumps on them and declares them a hater and a troll and rabble rabble rabble rabble.
It’s not healthy to disallow criticism.
Yes, there is a fine line between critical and bitchy and some people walk that line and fall on both sides occasionally, but I can’t see why criticism is a bad thing.
But it’s funny, this online world of ours, because we don’t criticise. It’s all happy happy joy joy and good for you and god forbid, if we disagree, we do in the most self deploring terms ever, with apologies peppered through it. Why should I apologise for disagreeing with someone, if I’m doing it in a respectful manner? Why do I feel the need to start the sentences with “I’m sorry, but…” before making my own point.
It’s getting a bit ridiculous.
I’ve found myself purposely staying silent over issues simply because I didn’t want to rock the boat. And maybe that’s fine, but not rocking the boat can be a bad thing too.
Why shouldn’t I say that I’m unhappy about the Bloggers Manifesto because it sounds scarily like a post of mine on Ethics and Integrity I wrote before the Aussie Bloggers Conference? What scares me so much about disagreeing, that I would purposely stay silent, for fear of the waves?
Yes, I’ve had the emails telling me that the Manifesto was created long before my post went live and that I’m making too much of things – but I’ve also seen the forum post saying that the manifesto was rewritten and simplified from the original document, after the conference, weeks after my post was written and received well within the community (and yes, I know who read it, my statcounter has labelled IP’s). I don’t think that the original writer was using my post as inspiration, but when it was rewritten, by someone else, that’s when it changed into something very similar to what I’d written.
So why do I feel like I should say nothing?
Criticism isn’t going to tear a community apart, not when there are so many bloggers and this construct of community is so broad and encompasses so many things. Criticism is going to make us look at our practices and work out what works best and what doesn’t work at all.
And you know what? Sometimes criticism hurts and we don’t like it.
Not liking something doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for it.
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