Several of us are working to increase our individual platform presence, but I am starting to wonder if that is more detrimental than helpful overall. How many times have you been scrolling through the comments on a post, video or blog and realized there was an alarming amount of negativity spread throughout?

There are content creators I follow who deal with constant criticism via comments or direct messages, some going as far as creating entire websites to bash creators they don’t like or agree with! While the negative behavior may be in the minority, its still a lot to deal with.

It is really easy to tell people to just ignore it, but not entirely realistic. As content creators, you want to engage with your audience. Otherwise, you just feel as if you are standing on a soap box spouting your opinion instead of building a community.

I have observed creators take a break from their platforms for awhile if they feel like the negative behavior is too much for them. Others simply have an assistant or someone they trust weed through comments so that they don’t even see the negativity and give it a chance to impact them. And yes, there really are some creators who say they don’t read any of it, ever.

For some reason people seem to forget that we are all humans with actual feelings. The keyboard has given people some sort of ‘keyboard warrior’ syndrome where they think it is perfectly alright to bash people for any reason they can think of from their looks, content, beliefs or anything else for that matter.

While we cant really stop them entirely, (outside of blocking them of course 😊) we can definitely try to focus more on the positive followers than the negative. I know sometimes its hard to do, but what is that old saying? Better a bird in the hand? If we give too much attention to the naysayers, we are giving away energy our real tribe deserves. So please whatever you do, do not let them stop you, from being you. Keep showing up, in whatever way you choose, on any platform you choose. Because in the end, there is only one you and not everyone deserves to stand in your light.