You get what you give (Saturated Market)

You get what you give

Blogging Ever get mad?

Ever get so flippin' angry you want to scream?

Ever get so blinkin' gosh-durn angry you open up the email, or pick up the phone, or fire up the blogging interface to give someone a piece of your mind?

Let me join the already deafening roar of people who are frantically screaming: DON'T!!!

Okay, this is sound advice for all kinds of situations. Many people have written or spoken about the myriad dangers of letting fly with your anger-fuelled opinions. But I'm not going to talk about email or telling off your coworker. My beef today is with bloggers who just have to blow their top.

It happens. We all get angry. And for anyone with a blog, there is often a tendency to use it as an outlet. This can be dangerous. You hope that your vitriol will emerge in such a way that the masses will cheer you on, because you're right, and because rants are always amusing in a dark humour way, so bravo!

You're dead wrong.

I remember I was once well known for my rants as a teenager. Friends and coworkers would gather to watch and cheer as I railed against some common threat. I saw myself as part social commentator (is that even a word? I really must check that), and part comedian. But I'll bet my new computer that at least part of their amusement can be traced back to "Ha ha, Jason's a spaz." So while you might think your rant is the star, you may just be making an ass of yourself for everybody's amusement.

But it's dangerous on the internet. Instead of your associates who know you to be doing it for fun or just numb to the idea, you're putting it out there where you're going to find people who disagree with you. A lot of them.

I still do it now and again. I have thrown caution to the wind and blogged in anger. And it's landed me a foot in the mouth and an apology. So far I think I've only erred on personal blogs, though I came close here once. I have a post sitting in "unpublished" mode that really I ought to just delete, just in case.

The problem is, with a debate or opinion piece, you can talk it out. You can reply to any detractors logically, and they may join the conversation that way. And if they can't be civil, you look all the more balanced. But with a rant, you have lost the high ground. If you have any words in ALL CAPS and a small army of exclamation points, you may get a fight on your hands. Remember, on your blog, you have to control the conversation. You set the tone. So if you get into the public eye with an angry rant, anyone who disagrees is going to respond in kind. Because you'll get THEM angry, and so they just rant back. And it can get out of control very quickly.

I've said this before, there is always another side to the story. That's why it's good to at least fairly address objections in a civil manner in your article, rather than going for the jugular.

There are plenty of ways to avoid this. You can take a step back, and think, do I really want to post this? Maybe sleep on it. If it still looks good later, go ahead. Or get a voice of reason. I once narrowly avoided embarrassment by asking a trusted friend to look at something I wrote about, and decided against posting it based on her counsel.

Emotion drives writing, but there is a difference between passionate writing and crying all over your keyboard.

Until next time,