Jason Gerrish: Internet Trolls

Today, I'd like to talk about trolling, cyber-bullying and negative people in general. Before I do that, I'd like to talk a little bit about why I started this channel. I started this channel as a creative outlet for myself. I have always been a creative and artistic person. Growing up, I always drew, painted, wrote and thoroughly enjoyed music. These creative outlets have been an invaluable means for me to express myself and those activities have gotten me through some really rough times. I've always been an introverted, shy and socially awkward person. Unfortunately, I'm very empathic and sensitive to the people around me. I view this as a tremendous strength and a weakness. I despise hurting people. That's why I tend to stay away from controversial and sensitive subjects. I've grown up surrounded by some intensely negative people. This has shaped my outlet on many things. I've made a promise to myself not to be like those people. Unfortunately, it's taken me a lot of years to come to terms with the attitudes of these people. It's taken me a long time to separate the useful criticism/remarks from the useless chatter. I'm now 40 years old and I'm just finally getting to the point where I can recognize harmful individuals that hold you back from accomplishing your full potential. These emotional parasites project their fears and shortcomings onto you because they can't do the things you do or are too afraid to do the things that you can do. Unfortunately, these people have done substantial damage, in my life because I allowed them to. I followed much of their advice/critiques. Recently, I've had to distance myself from many of these people to stop them from dragging me down with them.

Several years ago, I stopped doing anything artistically. I stopped writing fiction, I stopped writing music. I stopped writing poetry. I stopped painting, drawing, etc... There are a myriad of reasons why I did this. I have been in the IT field for close to 17 years, now. I chose this field because it's something that I have a natural aptitude for anything computer related. I wrote my first line of code when I was in fifth grade. I do enjoy working within the IT industry. Based on the advice of well-meaning but ill-advised, I made the decision to pursue this as a career. However, it was never my first love. I always thought that I could pursue other avenues on the side. Due to time constraints, this hasn't been the case. It got to a point where I just gave up on anything creatively... and I was miserable. It's hard to tell this, but I am a very passionate person. On the outside, I appear stoic and restrained. But, I do take things very seriously and personally. I don't like to half-heartedly do things and to not do so, a certain amount of time is required. I didn't have the time necessary, so rather than be in constant state of frustration, I gave up.

I gave you this long-winded background to allow you to understand my point of view concerning this topic. Because of my personality, I had reservations about creating my Youtube channel. I've been watching videos on youtube for a long time and I've seen the comments that get left in response to videos. I've made it a habit to check out the account associated with the negative comments. 9 times out of ten, these people haven't even uploaded any videos. On the extremely slim chance that they have, the videos are often of inferior quality to the videos that they criticized. This makes me question the motives that caused this person to comment the way that they did. Is it their own insecurities and jealousy that caused them to leave the comments? Do these individuals feel like they are doing the world a favor by reprimanding this person for having the audacity to express themselves? Does it give them some momentary feeling of satisfaction that they feel like they brought another person down so that they can be just as miserable as they are? What these trolls don't realize is that by leaving a comment, they have actually helped the original poster gather more views. They inspire people that might not have commented on or liked a video to do so. They can even cause a chain reaction that can cause a video to go viral. By spewing their venom, they have assisted the poster of the video generate more revenue. That's the beauty of social media. It has a domino effect. Another side effect of posting negative comments is that many prospective employers will Google your name and/or check out your facebook account. By posting anything on the internet, you have basically posted a mini press statement about yourself that is viewable by billions of people. This could hamper future employment endeavors and just future relationships, in general. Think twice before you post something.

I guess I'm struggling to find an explanation because I don't see anything positive for the troll coming from these actions. I was brought up with the belief that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. If you don't enjoy someone's work, don't watch their video. Don't purchase their music. Let your dollar be your voice. Many of the Youtube contributors make very little if anything from their pursuit.

I have a friend that is very negative and I've watched Youtube videos with him and I've heard his reactions to videos. This is an individual that is very ignorant when it comes to music, film and art. Yet, he feels the need to constantly judge people that have chosen the creative path. The very few avenues of artistic express that he does seem to enjoy are very simplistic and have to fit a certain pattern. He is also a programmer and he seems to be of the opinion that music and art aren't serious jobs like his. I heard him justify his ridiculing of videos by saying that these people get payed to do what they do. To that I reply, so far, I've earned less than a dollar from my channel. Yet, I've put in hours upon hours of work. My return on investment has been nonexistent. If this was a stock, I would get rid of it from my portfolio, immediately. But, from a spiritual and emotional standpoint, it's been invaluable. By the way, this is the same person that has never supported me in any of my ventures outside of work whether that be paintball or any artistic venture. But, I digress. I can devote an entire video/blog to just that and probably will.

Now, I've seen some more popular Youtubers respond to their critics in some creative ways. Two of my favorites are listed, below. Do you confront these individuals? Are they looking for a response? Do you ignore them. Sometimes, apathy and disinterest can be even more damaging than responding to someone like this. These people have always existed. Unfortunately, thanks to the internet, they have a much bigger platform and can affect more people, now than ever before. From my experience working retail and tech support, I can tell you that the majority of people that I have come across are really cool. Unfortunately, it only takes that one or two people to really ruin your day. With the current state of the world, I think it's imperative that we treat each other with respect and help each other. Let's emphasize the positive and play down the negative. Things are tough. We don't need to be putting unnecessary obstacles in each other's way. Life is going to do that for us.

God bless and be good to each other.

Here is the corresponding vlog to this blog: