I just got finished reading an infamous "bloganza" with well over 30 comments! Whew! Most people want comments on their blogs. Most of us think when you get a lot of responses, that's a good thing.
After reading the above mentioned (which I'm not going to link to here), I find myself rather riled up. And certainly not in a good way. I'm agitated; angry and more than a little confused. How can a forum for discussion turn into such mean-spirited repartee? Especially when there are mostly Christians involved?
I once found myself in such a "blow up" with one of my comments on another blog. Someone misunderstood what I said (or seriously disagreed) and it spiraled into a shooting match. I am sure, to this day, if that person ever met me personally they'd never take the chance to really get to know me because of this silly misunderstanding. Too bad. I now fear making some comments because of this.
When I read such things, I usually find it all stems from 1) people misunderstanding the words written or 2) people wanting to convince other people of their "right" way of seeing things. Maybe there are other reasons too, but my friends, in our discussions "can't we all just get along?"
I like discussion. I like to get involved. But as long as things can get so dicey in here, I'm betting there are plenty of others like me who won't get involved in a good discussion for fear of being misunderstood. Or for fear of getting someone's anger shot straight at them. That takes all the fun out of it.
Watch out! This blogging stuff is dangerous!
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I SO wanted to title this "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!" but my guess is too many would miss the reference. {sigh}
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7 comments:
i get the reference!!! I think you have to be over 40 to get it!!! LOL!!! HA HA. . .
I agree, blogging has its particular dangers.
forums can be like minefields! The worst forum I was ever on was on S.A. one, unfortunately. . . i swore that i could never again enter that forum and i've kept my word. man. . . it was not good.
Yeah- I remember a TSA forum some years ago (not the one you mention) where one particular person was terrible! They seemed to show up in all the threads and many others seemed to want to tell them off. This gets away from discussion to arguing. I'm NOT a fan or arguing (actually, I'm a Tampa Bay Rays fan!).
Doug, you're right. It can be dangerous. Like any written word, a letter, an online chat, a blog...when you cannot hear the person's voice, and the inflection that he/she uses there is always a chance of something being misunderstood.
In His Grip,
Dave
salarmyofficership.blogspot.com
I agree blogging can be dangerous, but can be very insightful.
It does seem to me that there has been alot of Army bashing and thats unfortunate.
God Bless You and your ministry.
Thanx for the nod.
The gift of encouragement doesn't seem to be a gift of may blog responders, does it?
*chuckle* Feeling old?
I have discovered that I must:
- Stop and read my posts, and consider whether they're ambiguously worded. Sometimes I know exactly what I mean, but that's no guarantee that another person will.
- Learn humility.
- Consider that I might have misunderstood another person's post (see first point), due to misreading, ambiguous wording, preconceptions, etc... and if I might have, ask them before I blast them.
- Learn more humility (really doesn't come easily to me)
- Show love when responding to people, whether they have disagreed, attacked, or offended. Sometimes that means shutting up and never saying another darn thing on the topic.
- Rely on God's opinion of me, not other people's... so that negative comments don't rip my self-esteem to shreds.
- Humbly (there's that humility thing again! argh!) consider others' criticisms of me... just in case they've actually got a point, and I need to apologise. Or maybe just grow spiritually in that area.
- Apologise for wrongs I've done, even if they were unintentional, even if someone else started it, even if I was 'in the right', even if someone else hurt me more. I still need to apologise for my part. This might take the form of apologising for continuing an argument when I should have realised that someone was upset and needing comfort, not logic.
Whew. That's a lotta musts.
Those are some GOOD, thought-out suggestions for bloggers and commenters! They should be more visible- would you mind if I used them for a blog entry? Of course, I'd give credit where it is due!
I hope no one would take offense at them! ;)
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