This is a post seen on a social media page for my home town.
‘If there’s one thing that boils my blood it’s people correcting someone on their spelling or punctuation. You seriously need to get off your high horse and think before you speak. They may be dyslexic, have mental health issues or learning difficulties, brain injuries etc. There are so many reasons why someone may struggle. Seriously get a grip. There’s far worse things to worry about’.
Fortunately, I don’t comment on spelling/punctuation in social media posts as I make a few rushed errors in that regard myself. Nevertheless, the post was telling, and thinking both philosophically and psychologically has brought these thoughts/comments/musings to mind:
1. If something as trivial as noting spelling errors makes your ‘blood boil’, you have a very low tolerance level and must be a very angry person most of the time; I suspect exaggeration;
2. The post is self-referential in that the poster is getting on their high horse about something when there are far more important things to worry about; i.e. a total lack of self-awareness that they’re exhibiting precisely the behaviour they’re criticising; this is an error often seen in emotional outbursts;
3. Emotional outbursts along these lines often have a subtext, something like, ‘I know you’re right but you’ve hurt my feelings, so I’ll make an aggressively defensive response which will make me feel better; it’s knee-jerk lashing-out;
4. Self-righteous emotional posts are worrying; the worst behaviours are exhibited by the self-righteous, and emotionally charged self-righteousness is a real recipe for disaster;
5. We can’t go through life only saying anything critical when there is no possibility of an exception or where someone can’t help it. We deal in generalisations because, with 5 billion people on the planet, to do otherwise would mean we could never criticise anything or anyone; and whatever some may say, that would NOT be a positive move;
6. How are standards maintained, ideas challenged, new ideas formed if we decide that only mean & nasty people would ever criticise anyone else? It’s so childishly preposterous, it’s laughable; and of course, the poster feels quite happy to criticise others whenever it suits them; so it’s the old ‘it’s ok for me, not for thee’ hypocrisy;
7. Of course, what people who post in this way mean is, ‘don’t criticise me or people who agree with me, or people who I have decided don’t deserve it; however, anyone not in these categories are legitimate targets – criticise them as much as you like’; narcissism;
8. This is the level of cognitive anlysis and emotional control displayed by so many on social media. My worry is that if they behave like this on social media, do we really think it’s likely that they can behave any differently in the real world? Or if they can, will the next generation be able to who know nothing else but communication via social media?
9. My answer in this situation is two-fold: 1. When a social media post makes you angry, never type the response until you’ve calmed down and given proper thought to the matter; and 2. either ignore posts you find provocative OR find a way of disagreeing using a calm non-aggressive form of words.
