A friend of mine came to me recently saying that she was “blatantly approached with an insulting proposition” </quote> by another member of the social media network where she participated. She looked really worried and angry. I recommended her to block the guy and forget about that.
Another friend of mine keeps complaining that he is often “spammed”</quote> by his social media friends who ask him to vote for their stories. I said that social media is all about sharing information, so that’s quite natural.
If you participate in social media:
- you are most likely to be thumbed down;
- you are most likely to get negative reviews;
- you are most likely to receive insulting messages from random people;
- you are most likely to be often misundestood;
- you are most likely to spend time answering meaningless (as you might think) PMs;
- you are most likely to get requests for a favor…
Why is it so, you ask?
- Social media network is a community of people from different countries and cultures – what seems OK in one country is unacceptable in another country. Very often this can result in a cultural shock;
- Social media network is a community of people who speak different languages – hence people may mean to say one thing and sound as if they mean something else;
- Social media network is a community of people of different ages. Generation gap may cause misunderstanding.
- Social media network is a community of people with different motivation. Some people are there to meet friends, others to find love, and some – to network with business partners;
- lastly, social media network is a community of different people – let’s face it, people can be wicked and bitter.
What if you are easily offended but still want to participate in social media?
My advice is to join Myspace and start adding friends (Digg is also quite OK for this by the way). You will be spammed, insulted and pissed off to the extent that your activity at any other social media will seem enjoyable after that experience. Just try it and you won’t be as easily offended as you thought before. 🙂 Good luck!
Image: the rules
