I’M OUTRAGED! Said… Not me
This is my first and last blog post about this. I don’t know about you, but I cannot bear the repeated shaming, outrage, shock rhetoric on social media at the moment. It is a school of social content being taught and adopted en masse for meaningless engagement, likes and comments that, in my opinion, perpetuates negativity and incites judgement.
For me, social media is a platform to share, motivate and inspire, not somewhere to constantly spit your outrage at people.
You know what I mean, the posts like…
“OMG someone commented something inappropriate”
“I’m outraged I got sent a direct sales message!”
Sound familiar?
Not only do you see this content, but you also get the posts with people calling out those who don’t stand with those posting this type of content. I read a little while ago that women who don’t support women sharing their disgust about getting inappropriate direct messages from men are “part of the problem.” Please. I get these messages too. I get worse if I am honest, but I don’t believe public shaming is the solution to this.
A connection of mine tested this type of post recently, slamming a different social platform and got great engagement… She said she has trialled it after seeing so many similar posts on LinkedIn and couldn’t believe the results. Seductive huh?
The main issue I have with this type of “hand-raising” content strategy is that SO MANY people use this tactic now that it’s lost all credibility. Sometimes it’s word for word the same post [insert different event/person/issue]. From a Personal Brand point of view, I actively encourage emotional language, persuasion and other psychologically engaging tactics, but this approach only seems to speak to our base selves, the darker side of our psyche. As a species, we have a negative bias anyway and this type of content speaks to that negative part of us. Is that useful to us? How does it really serve people?
If you are one of these posters, you might get comments or likes, but for what? So people think you are judgemental? Unable to keep your private thoughts private? So easily offended?
I’m not trying to shame you in return, I’m just asking you to consider what is the purpose. Does it really get you in front of the right people and for the right reason?
Now I’m not the thought police here, and I am not saying not to have opinions or not to share these. But how about, just occasionally, contribute something that doesn’t get everyone so riled up… and if you are REALLY honest, you probably don’t care too much about either.
For the last few weeks, I have been quietly disconnecting from these people and have been enjoying my new more peaceful existence. It’s lovely and zen over here.