It’s inevitable: when you have more than two people involved in anything there will be disagreements and clashes of personalities. I accept this and understand it, it’s one of the constants of human interaction. Whether we like it or not, it happens. What sets you apart is how you react to it.
Take a trip down memory lane with me, will you? Think back to high school, or perhaps junior high. If you’re like me you weren’t exactly the most popular kid in school. More importantly, you knew it. You knew you didn’t dress right or have the right hair. Maybe you had glasses, or braces, or something else that made you different. Every morning you woke up and got ready for school, you knew you weren’t going to be sitting with the cool kids at lunch.
Did that stop people from reminding you of it? No. They’d pass notes, or post signs, or giggle when you walked past. Perhaps worst of all were the not-so-secret conversations where someone would comment to their friends about how they hated how weird you were as you walked down the hall. Just loudly enough that you’d be able to hear. Yeah, you already knew you were weird. Having some popular kid announce it in the hallway only made things worse.
Do you remember that? I know I do…
I bring this up, a memory (or set of memories, rather) painful enough to bring tears to my eyes almost 20 years later, in order to make a point. The people behind the word you read online are real. Someone is sitting on the other end of the tubes typing in those posts and comments. You have every right in the world to disagree with what they think. Heck, you can even think they’re stupid (I know I do sometimes).
But to respond by loudly letting the world know that you’re blocking or leaving or whatever else is juvenile. It belittles the person on the receiving end, making them feel just like you did when those popular kids told everyone how much they couldn’t stand you. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the right and the person did in fact do something stupid, just as it didn’t matter that you were in fact weird (and maybe smelled a little funny) in high school. The fact that it something is true doesn’t make it hurt any less. Sometimes, those things hurt more than lies.
So the next time you’re involved in social media drama and are tempted to call someone out, take a step back. Do you want someone to announce to everyone on a service that they’ve blocked you? Or that they think your content is annoying, spammy, or perhaps just a little too low-brow for the service you’re on? If not, then do the adult thing and take the other person’s feelings into consideration. Block if you have to, but don’t announce it to the world. You’ll likely be involved in a lot less drama in the long run as a result.
