"The less you react to negative people, the more peaceful your life will be." ~ Unknown
I work for a website that creates videos on lifestyle, fashion, food, travel, fitness and more.
Our channel has a large following from all walks of life and we get a lot of love, but also a little bit of hate. Although a lot of people are involved in the production of a video (directors, videographers, editors), the comments, feedback and of course the hatred are usually directed towards the face you see in front of the camera, and that's the anchor – AKA me!
When I started as an anchor, I had already worked as a model for several years and felt comfortable in front of a camera. When videos came, I took it as a challenge, an opportunity to test myself and see what I could do.
Fortunately, I really enjoyed it. My first videos were very well received and some crossed hundreds of thousands of views. I was a little intimidated, but also at a peak because they seemed to be doing well.
But slowly as I became my role as anchor, I realized that there is a completely different side in public that I never knew anything about.
For me, standing in front of the camera meant performing well and getting recognition or criticism for it. I believe that each of us has the ability to deal with constructive criticism. we all want to grow, we all want to improve, don't we? The problem begins when criticism loses its perspective and becomes destructive and downright hurtful.
One fine day, after my latest video was released, I sat at home and flipped through the comment section and came across a really mean comment. It stung me. And I couldn't help it. I went down the rabbit hole to read all the comments on my videos and found tons of negative ones. It was one of the deepest moments in my life.
And oh, people are creative! The comments weren't just limited to whether I did a good job as an anchor or not. They covered everything from shaming my body to threats of physical harm. It almost shook me to see all those mean things that strangers wrote about me.
Now I know that we don't all have to face the same hatred as people in the media. But in today's age of social media, each of us has dealt with negativity on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. And as someone who has dealt with a lot of it, I have a strong feeling for it!
The following are some of the things I did to deal with this trolling that really helped me. I hope some of these tips can help you deal with hate when it comes to you!
1. Know your haters.
The type of comments a person posts on social media speaks a lot about the person themselves. What you need to recognize is that a person who is constantly trolling you is probably in a very sad and unfortunate place on your own Life is.
Would a person living a fulfilling life hide behind the screen of anonymity and spend their time being mean to a random person on the Internet?
Internet trollers are, in most cases, people who live unfulfilled, sad lives and want to avoid frustration by blowing up random strangers. Do you really have to take the opinion of such people seriously?
2. Distinguish between constructive and destructive criticism.
Let's be real, nobody likes criticism. But do we need it in a few cans? Yes, we do! Not only on the Internet, but also in your private life, it is best to criticize and work on your mistakes. The trick is to recognize whether the criticism is constructive or destructive.
For example, a comment that prompts me to work on my accent and pronunciation is constructive for me because I know it will help me improve my diction.
On the other hand, a comment that was only published with the aim of shaming me need not be taken seriously. I can tell an unfortunate person who doesn't choose someone else so as not to acknowledge and address the things that they dislike about themselves and their own lives.
3rd joke about it.
One trick I learned pretty soon in my breakdown was not to take things too seriously anymore! I have a few close friends that I sit with and read all negative comments about me and laugh a lot! (If you need a little help to find the funny thing in the middle, Google read "Celebrities Wicked Tweets". If you don't take hatred personally, you can't help but laugh at something about it!)
4. Eradicate negativity.
If at any point you feel that someone is getting too much for you to just sort them out. It is very easy to do this on the Internet. You simply block them from all possible platforms and VOILA! Bye negativity!
This may be a little more difficult if you deal with people who are in your life on a daily basis. But if someone regularly tries to pull you down, it's not worth keeping them in your life anyway.
5. Open up.
When you speak to your community, you will find that everyone is involved in some form of hate. What helped me the most was watching funny YouTube videos where YouTubers respond to hateful comments on their videos. Superwoman is one of my favorite YouTubers, and her video, in which she replied to her haters, was a savior for me.
Not only does this bring a humorous twist to the situation, it also reminds you that everyone in the world today is faced with it, which makes it easier to deal with because you realize that it really isn't personal, no matter how personal it is is shines.
Regardless of how you deal with the hate that is thrown at you, you are never afraid to be absolute and unabashedly yourself. Some will love it, others will hate it, but you don't have to let their opinion get you down!
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