I sometimes don’t understand people. At the beginning of this month I wrote a post and added a video asking the question what’s wrong with being nice. I went at that question in a different way than what I’m going to talk about today, and yet it’s as pertinent to this topic as any other.
 via Compfight |
Back in December I wrote a post saying how much I loved Instagram, now that it can be accessed through Android. I still love Instagram. What I find is that I don’t necessarily like all the people there.
I love the people following me; thank you to anyone following me there. For anyone who’s not connected with me there I’m mitch9359. I love seeing your pictures and I hope you don’t get tired of looking at all the food pictures I put up.
Occasionally I like to take a quick look at an attractive lady or two; hey, I’m a guy. There’s the page that gives you 15 random photos, and occasionally I take a look. It’s amazing how many likes those pictures get… okay, I guess it’s not so amazing after all. What’s amazing are some of the comments.
I don’t know when it became a legitimate thing to decide that just because someone put a picture of themselves somewhere looking nice that you, some pig, has the right to say what you want to do to that person; you know what’s being said. Or talking about someone’s anatomy as if you know this person and thus have privileges that no one else does. How tasteless and childish can people be?
You know what stupid people? Your name gets highlighted, thus anyone can follow you back to see who you are or what images you’ve put up. I’ve gone this a few times and I have to admit that I’m amazed. It’s not all young punks writing this junk. One was obviously a devout Muslim because all the pictures on his site were Islamic religious icons, and any male was wearing the traditional headdress. So, you’re telling the world that you could care less about your religion because you can demean women anytime you want to, or are you saying that a pretty woman doesn’t matter to you because, since she’s sharing her body, she’s not chaste in your world and thus it doesn’t count?
I saw many other people who were saying the same sorts of things, and yet when you went to their page they made it seem like they were relatively nice people, putting up images that no one would ever think to object to. I really thought for a couple of moments about saying something on some of these pages, but decided I didn’t want to go there.
The same thing happens on YouTube. Stupid idiots will make comments and say all this trash and filth, yet when you visit their pages, for the most part they’re pretty straight. A few of them are as trashy and nasty on their own page, in which case you know there’s nothing much you can do about them. Well, that’s not quite true.
On YouTube, if you care, you can delete comments you don’t like. Not that I get many comments but if some came in with language I didn’t support I’d just up and delete it. On Instagram, you can’t delete comments; at least I haven’t been able to figure out how you can do it if you wanted to. It’s possible you can go online and do it, but I’m just not sure. However, if an image has more than a thousand comments, who wants to go back and read any of that garbage?
I’ve been writing a lot this month about behavior, mostly bad behavior, and maybe it’s a good thing this month is ending. I keep asking is that what we’ve become, and is this really the future of this country and the world, people deciding that no one else’s feelings or sensitivities matter? Let me know. In the meantime I’ve embedded a video from our Hot Blog Tips Hangout on the topic of negative feedback, which I led, that talks a bit more about this same thing:
youtu.be/0MgBHg65Kt4
I haven’t noticed this on Instagram but I have noticed it on YouTube and I must admit I am so surprised that the comments exist. For the life of me I don’t know why they’re not deleted. I know I delete any comment when I think it’s not appropriate.
Sire, I guess when comments get into the thousands people think it’s a waste of time but for everything else, I think it’s needed, and it’s what I’d do. Still, we can trace these people back to their space; how can they be that stupid?
Yeah, but it’s not like they get all those comments in one day. As for people being stupid, some of them just can’t help themselves.
Or don’t care to try. It’s a much different world than where we started, that’s for sure.
I haven’t made the Instagram move yet so I can’t really address that. As far as YouTube goes, I haven’t had many comments on my videos. What bugs me are the people who post a video in RESPONSE to a video I’ve posted that seems to have NOTHING to do with my video.
I still believe the old saying, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all” or at least disagree in a respectful way.
Bev, my videos don’t get many responses or views either, but many videos I end up watching do, and a lot of the comments are disgusting.
Unfortunately, I have got the same (bad) experiences on Instagram. Anonymous haters are everywhere, but somehow, on Instagram, sometimes they are particular cruel. I can understand that the whole internet is about saying what you think, but sometimes it is too much. I don’t know if Instagram feeds are checked my moderators or admins, but if yes, they don’t do their job well…
There are no moderators there Sabine, so we have to handle it all ourselves. I tend to think it’s women taking the brunt of the bad treatment; that’s just wrong.
Hey Mitch,
Well you know I’m not on Instagram but I definitely have a YouTube account. I’ve had some very nasty, ugly, rude and tasteless comments on some of my videos and I instantly delete them and block those users.
I agree with you, what’s wrong with some of these people. On the other hand I just think there are some really ugly people in this world who are miserable in their lives so they just want to degrade and bring down others to their levels.
In all honesty, I don’t give those people a second thought because we’ll never know what their true issues are and why they do what they do. I just mark them off as losers and move on with my life never giving them a second thought.
Okay, that’s my take on it anyway.
~Adrienne
Adrienne, I shouldn’t give it a second thought, but I do. It hasn’t happened to me except for when I commented on a video & someone else didn’t like it but never in my space. I just hate that these jerks seem to pervade everything like that.
Mitch,
I agree, people can act so obnoxiously. I’m in law enforcement and I see it constantly.
One thing I don’t understand, though, is what ever happened to the mantra that was around when I was a young lad. It said that my rights as an individual stop when they start to infringe on the rights of others.
If we got back to that, I think we’d make some tremendous progress in human interaction. Alas, I don’t think it’s ever going to happen.
Unfortunately, I’m of the opinion that our society and human morality is spiraling downward at an exponentially increasing rate. It’s things like you mentioned that make my point.
There’s still many, many good people out there, but we’re all being overrun by idiots who take advantage of their anonymity. It’s aggravating and frustrating.
Anyways, I’ll get off of my soapbox.
Thanks for sharing, Mitch. I appreciate and agree with your rant here!
Have a great week.
~Barry
Barry, thank you for your point of view, which I totally agree with. Some people say I’m sensitive, some say that it’s the way of the world. I just can’t believe it’s going there so fast, and though I know it can’t be totally stopped, it’s just depressing to see such behavior, especially in front of kids and our “elders”, if you will. At the casino you hear that all the time, but every once in awhile the dealer will make someone stop if there’s a lady at the table. You don’t see that type of chivalry all that often anymore.
Very true, not only that, it’s rampant in facebook as well. One time, I saw the picture of a friend with so may comments, the picture looked pretty therefore I did not expect to see demeaning ones in it. People can be so…unethical…sometimes.
That they can Vianney, and it makes no sense because we can see who they are. I just can’t figure out what people get out of being mean like that except maybe it’s the only way they can boost their own self esteem.
Hello Mitch, I have not played with Instagram yet. It’s like, where does all the time go? haha. I probably need to just dive into it like I finally did Pinterest. These comments I see occasionally on YouTube are crazy sometimes. I am often tempted to comment back to the these off in left field mind types, but I know that they just crave responses. People really should delete these bad comments. This way there is some sort of, I better not get nasty or I might get deleted concern with these people š
Hi Sam,
Since you’ve become a consistent commenter I need to tell you that I don’t accept keywords in the name field, and that’s why your posts keep going to the spam filter first. I’ve been pulling them out, but I’m going to request you don’t add those anymore; thanks.
Second, I’m glad I haven’t had any of those on my videos yet, but today I had my first negative comment on one of my blogs. However, it was easy to tell it was a troll because no link was left, it was a made up name, and it had a hotmail email address, which to me is a throwaway. So I just deleted it and moved on, and I didn’t even break a sweat. I know that if my videos ever got more popular I’d set it up so that they’d all be moderated and I wouldn’t allow any of the garbage through like that. People disagreeing with you is one thing; trolls… no one wants to deal with that or have it associated with them.
Hello Mitch,
No Problem Mitch. I did read your comment policy prior to leaving my first comment. This is what I read, “You can use a name, then put your keywords after it. I just need something to call you, since I respond to most people who post here.” This made it sound like your blog had the KeyWordLuv plugin. What are your thoughts about any positives or negatives with the KeywordLuv Plugin? Most people really like it š
Actually Sam, most people really don’t like it. It’s certainly not as popular as CommentLuv, that’s for sure. Some offer it as a way to encourage even more people to leave comments; I’m not so sure it really works that way.
My main problem with it is that many times you have no idea who you’re really talking to. Not only that, but sometimes spammers have a way of squeezing all sorts of words into it; I’ve seen some come through with 10 words popped in there, no rhyme or reason, just tons of words. Pure idiocy. lol
I also like a name that I can return a comment to; that’s my main issue. And most people only use a first name, maybe 2, so I have all my blogs set up to send any comment that has 3 words in it to spam automatically. It does eliminate a lot of spam automatically showing up on the blog, but it catches folks like you who put your name in, then the keywords.
Sadly Mitch, this one I can vouch for. I was a fairly heavy Instagram user at one time. I had a couple thousand images up, quite a few being from my daily life. Myself, my partner, our kids and yeah… my cat was quite a star in her own regard. Before long, followers arrived. And then more and more. That was when it became creepy to me.
It certainly wasn’t the norm that all people behaved badly, but those that did behaved so badly, making incredibly inappropriate comments (particularly toward our 13 year old daughter) that I wound up going through the tedious process of pulling most photos of myself and family and leaving it a sterile husk. That did end the problem, but it was a problem that never should have been.
Too many people view the Internet as having a force field that insulates them. As long as they do, people will be inappropriate toward others. And you know me, in the online sense at least, and have a good idea how bad it has to be for me to say “that’s way over the line.”
Thanks for your comment Amanda. It’s mainly guys, although I’ve seen some females hating on someone just because they might look good (or bad I’ll admit, but still…). I was stunned by that, and it seems the more popular someone is, the worst it gets. The only folks who seem to avoid it are those sites that are putting up nature shots that may or may not be their own. I haven’t had anything bad yet thank goodness, though I know how I am so I know I’ll be tracking anyone back to has something to say. I understand you’re supposed to just let it go; won’t be me. š
Hi Mitch!
Well, as you know from coming over to my blog, I had trouble dealing with a nasty person. I never encountered this before so it really threw me off.
Now, you have to understand that no matter how peaceful I live my life, I still have that feisty Brooklyn gal in me (born and raised there) So I can hit the roof when “attacked with nasty words.
When I encountered this type of behavior, I was truly shocked. I did have disagreements on my blog, but the difference was they were respectful comments. Hey, this is how we learn from each other. We can disagree, but in an honorable way.
When I had the encounter of the nasty guy insulting my guest blogger, then insulting me. I wrote him that this was not allowed on my blog and I spammed him. Well, this poor soul decided to send me several horrible emails. Yes, part of me wanted to punch him in the nose, but I had to calm down.
I blocked him there too and on all my social sites. Now, I’m not a softie, but I was truly hurt by this attack and reacted emotionally. Hey…that just doesn’t happen to me! I spent too much time and energy learning to block negative energy.
But it was like a sucker punch! Of course, the only way to handle people like this is to delete them and ignore them.
It did upset me, so I said a prayer and pushed those delete buttons and spam buttons.
People asked me on Facebook when I shared my rant “why did you say a prayer?” Well, if someone is so negative, you just never know why. He was an older man and maybe he had a brain tumor. Maybe he was psychotic. Who knows? That is why I said a prayer and it is also a way of blessing him out of my life.
I enjoyed your hangout and your guests! I did laugh when you said that you had tracked down a guy. But as you know it is just feeding the negative energy.
I must say that I enjoyed Barry Overstreet’s comment! “Unfortunately, Iām of the opinion that our society and human morality is spiraling downward at an exponentially increasing rate.”
And that is something that was connected to that incident I experienced when searching my mind. Because our society at large is spiraling down, this man’s comment just connected to all of that too.
Blessings,
Donna
Thanks for your great comment Donna. Truthfully I had one guy many years ago who reacted badly to a newsletter I wrote about my dad of all things because he was in the military. This guy wanted to go on a rant about America and its warlike ways and I didn’t want to engage him, though I did respond to the first email saying it was a post about my dad and nothing more. Then he came to my business blog & started writing all this stuff there as well and I blocked his ISP. You just never know what will trigger some folks but you can also bet we’re all glad we weren’t living close to each other. lol
I’m not sure if society has changed or if it’s just that there’s so many ways for people to express themselves anonymously that they’re just taking advantage of what they think is a free ride. Obviously with Instagram and YouTube these folks aren’t paying attention to how easy it is for us to know who they are. False security has to be the worst; oh well…
I agree with you about comments. It’s amazing what people will write when they think they’re unknown. Recently a UK professional boxer tracked down a twitter user who was insulting him. Result? I scared twitter fool.
I love that story. More people need to remember that they’re not all as anonymous as they think they are. Even at my size I don’t court controversy in that manner because there are too many equalizers that I don’t have around if you know what I mean.