Well it's the end of the year in a few days and the social networks are alive with reflections of 2010 as well as people looking forward with renewed motivation to 2011. Don't worry, you won't see any "2011 is my year, next year watch me blow" kind of statements around here; '2000 and Grind' absolutely jarred my head back in '09. I think I'll just keep my head down and get on it with it. Nevertheless, as I look back into 2010, there are three words that come to mind, a phrase that was thrown out at every opportunity, the statement that was such a cliche, saying that it was a cliche actually became a cliche....yep you've guessed it: 'He/She's a hater'.
Now there are two sides of my fence here, the second side annoys me slightly more than the first. Let's start with the first (well obviously). My question is have we become a nation of haters? I've been asking myself this for a while. Yes the term has been around before 2010 but this year for whatever reason (ahem Twitter) it has entered my viewing space on more or less an every-day basis. The rise in the popularity social networks, which by their very nature invite people to comment, and programmes such as X Factor and Dancing with the Stars where we all become singing and dance experts, means that we are encouraged to state our opinion - good and bad. Now I'm all for that, having an opinion. Well I blog, if I didn't have an opinion then I wouldn't be here. But has it come to a point where the negative comments are outweighing the good?
Well taking a look at one days worth of my Twitter and FB news feeds, I would say otherwise; I see supportive comments, retweets of projects that others are working on, encouragement and praise etc. Obviously there are the odd jibes at Cheryl Cole or an up and coming Team UK rapper but perhaps its because I follow positive people, I'm not surrounded by too much negativity. This is a principle that I apply to my 'offline' life also, therefore the so-called excessive 'hateration' doesn't bother me so much. To me, it appears to be so easy to get rid of people that you deem negative: cut them off, block them, delete their number, you get the drift. However, for some reason the cries of 'Hi Hater' still seem to be on repeat on my airwaves.
Now this is what annoys me, the second side of my fence, the issue that led me to a midnight rant on FB which had me furiously typing away at my Blackberry, eyes wide open like a crazy woman - it was in no way the 'Carrie' image that I have of myself whenever I blog or write. I was being voyeuristic, catching up with what all of my 200 odd 'friends' had been up to that day and was astounded by the number of 'hater'-related status updates there were. Nowadays, it seems like everyone has got haters, from Diddy venting his frustration to his fans via UStream, to Abdul from the Lion's chicken shop down the road complaining about the chip shop around the corner stealing his customers. It has become endemic amongst our generation - if you are anybody then you HAVE to talk about about how many haters you have, how you're going to prove your haters wrong and how much they motivate you to 'grind harder'. Stop begging it. You don't have haters. Damn, all I said was that I didn't like your trainers and now I'm a hater of your life goals and achievements???!! Maybe it's because over the years the ideology of celebrity and fame has become more prominent in our society, whether it be red-carpet fame or fame-on-the-road. The media and shows like X-Factor have told us to believe in ourselves and not let anyone tell us we can't achieve our dreams, so much so that now it appears that we have inflated egos where criticism is dismissed because the person who said it, that blasted dream-killer, is obviously just an ugly person inside who is simply jealous and doesn't know what they're talking about. For example, I am a Beyonce fan but that doesn't mean I'm going to like everything she does. I made a comment about B on my blog a while back (you see, so close we're on first-initial basis), one negative word and the stans came at me like flying banshees. Now I love Beyonce, yes I complain about her being overexposed but throw on 'Baby Boy' and I can do the entire sand-dance routine blindfolded - backwards roll and everything! Does a negative comment make me a hater? In fact, at what point does someone become a hater? Is it five negative comments in a row, or if they make a positive comment now and again then that's ok? Who cares!!! I'm so over hearing this word! (Closes eyes, inhales and exhales for ten seconds).
Not everyone is going to like what you do; it's inevitable you will face negative comments one way or the other. Yes there may be some people out there who never say or do anything positive but why is that an issue to you, ask yourself that question. Do you rely too much on external validation perhaps? If naysayers do criticise you, decide whether it is constructive or not; if it isn't, then don't let it bother you. Personally, I don't let it affect me either way so for me to talk/tweet/FB/get annoyed or angry about 'haters' is expending energy in a wasteful manner when it could be more useful elsewhere.
What do you think, have we become a nation of haters or do people just have inflated egos which means they find it difficult to swallow criticism? Speak on it.
If you like this post, feel free to comment and share (new feature alert!) I appreciate your support. If you don't like it, comment anyway, I don't care -you're just a hater! ;)
