One of my favourite things to do is read social media comments, often hilarious and generally more insightful than the original post. One of my connections on LinkedIn, Joe, often leaves those hilarious and insightful comments, which are right up my street. And this morning, as I suspected, he was once again spot on with his comment. However what shocked me was that he had to actually comment in the first place!
Let me explain...
Through his LinkedIn network, Joe had seen a post, written by a chap called Scotty, in which Scotty tried to publicly shame other commuters. He even posted a sneaky photograph he had snapped of the people he was referencing.
Here’s the post:
So you can see why Joe commented and rightly so.
Curiosity peaked, I read through the other comments and there was an overwhelming sense Scotty was being very judgmental of other people. Disgust that he took a sneaky photo and distain for his self indulgent personality that assumed he was the only one in his direct vicinity who was being, what he considered “productive”.
Hey is that you Steve?
One thing I did notice was, a couple of people commenting on the photograph and tagging a chap called Steve. This is when my eye brows rose, Oh please be Steve I said to myself as I scrolled through the comments. Yep, there we are, it is Steve! Talk about a small social media world! So here was Scotty, posting a photograph of strangers on a train, in his eyes being unproductive and turns his extended network knew one of the strangers. So, being the productive guy that he is, Steve responds, with a rather classy response I might add.
The moral of the story
Be careful what you post on social media, yes be constructive, and disruptive and challenge the status quo, but there is a fine line. Posting negative and hurtful comments about other people, tells the world more about you and your personality than it does other people.
