I was walking home from work the other day, listening to some Infected Rain. The song 'Mold' came on - this is a song that has resonated with me for a long time, and I even spoke about it with their vocalist in an interview earlier this year. But this time it got me thinking.
"Too busy criticising, hating everyone
You forgot to become someone"
Haters. Don't you just love em?
We've all got people who don't like us - that's just a fact of life. But I'm sure most of you reading this will have had experiences with nasty individuals online who hide behind their keyboard just to send hate, to put you down. It's exceptionally prevalent these days and we see stories in the press more and more about young people who have been cyberbullied to such an extent that they take their own lives. It's awful. No one should be made to feel so low that they feel that is their only way out, because of vile human beings on the internet.
Those of us in the content creation space get it a lot. I'm a gamer, and I've been trolled. Content creator friends of mine have had it also, to differing levels. It's not an easy thing to deal with and you know what? The individuals who do this just want to grind you down, to make you feel small and run you away from something that you love.
It happens in the author world too. A while back myself and a few colleagues were subjected to some absolutely vile behaviour. Fake accounts were created on Goodreads and Amazon to post 'reviews' that trashed both our work and us as human beings. Fake accounts were also created to leave vile messages on blog posts, 'anonymous' emails were sent insulting us. It was, quite frankly, awful. Of course as authors we all get bad reviews - that's part and parcel of putting your work out there. But as long as the criticism is CONSTRUCTIVE that's fine. If they are just full of jealous hatred...sometimes it does make you want to just jack the whole lot in. Every so often too I get nasty emails - I know just who these are from too, despite them trying to remain anonymous. The emails can be just one word, aiming to insult me.
Back in the day such things really got to me but over the years I've grown a thick skin and learned to realise that when these haters attack, it comes from a place of jealousy. And if anything, their behaviour just motivates me to work harder and be better.
Let me know in the comments below if you've had any similar experiences and remember, in the words of Taylor Swift ~ haters gonna hate