Myspace and online forums are great places to extract opinions and formulate “what people think about stuff”-style content from (not just for this dopey blog, but other publishing enterprises I write for for a living) but the problem is that you can’t get reactions out of people unless you interact with them and interacting in a way that will give you the content you’re going for requires partially writing your article right there in the online interaction. This has the unfortunate side effect of making some people assume that you care. lol.
“Whoah! you’re so offended” or “wow! looks like I really struck a nerve with you!” or something similar are common reactions and I don’t blame these folks for using the limited information they have to make that assessment with – it’s just not correct. Which it doesn’t need to be. Because let’s face it – the reason for saying such a thing isn’t to actually call out behavior or advance a dialog or anything – it’s to try and escape a situation by making the other person think they’re acting emotionally or otherwise over the top to the degree that is warranted.
In a lot of cases, they’re not wrong. I’m responding with a lot of text because i’m writing an article – duh. But the assessment that I’m nerve struck or emotionally invested in the topic (which ranges from societal commentary, to celebrities and reality tv star behavior or news or reaction to such news, or other things that people on social networking websites show passion over) is lulzy. I don’t care about this topic. Whatever it is. I don’t joust on the internet over things that I’m emotionally invested in. You’re not going to incite me into a type-storm defending my mother (who is a total saint), or whatever humans feel defensive about these days. To do that I would need to value your opinion enough to want to change it, and 95% of the time these interactions are with people I don’t even know or know loosely. The other 5% of the time when it’s someone I have more familiarity with, I’m still not invested in changing their mind because I don’t care about changing pretty much anyones mind about anything. I “prefer clarity to agreement” which is a line a radio show host is fond of saying that I completely identify with. -I don’t need you to think differently – my interest is in clarifying why you think what you do and why I or others think their way and hopefully in the process write a good piece I can make money from while I sleep. Thaz all my dudes.
To a normal person, verbosity is a sign of passion. but nah. I’m just writing. -Sincerely, I might add. Not faking or “trolling” as the kids say now, which as I understand it, means faking a position just to make other people angry. I don’t do that. People get angry but I’m not trying to poke their sensitivities with provocative points – I’m just posting info that contradicts their narrative to see how they react. Sometimes they flip out, sometimes they get angry and delete me, sometimes they turn it into a pissing contest and try to personally slam me as a counter-attack, sometimes they politely engage in disagreement, and sometimes we even have a thoughtful exchange. -But every one of those reactions makes for a good post for me. And one assumes that they are responding – even if it’s of the angry variety – because they are getting something beneficial out of the exchange too, no? So again – everybody wins!
Ain’t nobody gotta get fussy. I’m just putting out and taking in info and you’re just interacting with comments on the stuff you posted for the purpose of sharing and idea spreading and all that, right? So everybody wins! I get some writers prompts to punch in my days work instead of having to get a real job – and you had a fun experience where some random dude was all blah-blah-blah on a bulletin or link or thingy you posted. Ain’t nobody gotta be angry, my G. It’s all in good spirits.
If you want to actually strike a nerve – say something truly offensive like “cheese pizza is the worst” or “Jessica Simpson isn’t attractive”. I’ll still use it as a writers prompt to debunk for an outlet I can make some coin on.
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