you know, its amazing how things change overnight. i have often wondered why people who are famous never seem to get the rule right when faced with a scandal or public condemntation. i was one of those who thought at every stage of ndi okereke's obama dinner saga - when she made a point of responding to every single article written on the matter in almost every newspaper - that she should have kept silent long before she did. now i realize its easier said than done.
twas this same me, who went on a tirade of sorts when the results of the nigerian blog awards were announced. i didn't let them hear the last of it. i made one (okay a few) tweets on twitter trying to play the part of the 'sore loser', just to create some memorable drama to an otherwise successful award show. although the process of the awards needed some tweaking, i am better able to coordinate my expressions than to come out unintentionally, as a sore loser. and so, i half expected that anyone reading that post would realize that i wasn't serious at all, and was trying to do the whole "faith hill at the CMA 2007 reaction" type thing.
however, the matter took a different dimension when i got some sincere support from my fans. i couldn't turn around and tell them that i was only kidding without losing some of the seriousness with which they regard my blog posts. so i had to see the act through, and thus could no longer separate the act from the fact. the truth is, i feel that life without drama can be boring and those who know me well, know that my style of being funny is to act out the most ridiculous things. and this was one of those times. i was in no way miffed by the fact that i didn't win...i was actually trying to say something so ridiculously unbelievable that people would say "boohoo, here take a hanky...hater!" and laugh it off. how wrong i was! my blog has received 102 views in the past 2 hours alone on the strength of that post and the twitter mob has been in full swing. deservedly...
you see the thing with public condemnation is simple, there is no ground for logic or reasoning. people are happy to hide behind the curtain of anonymity and throw pebbles at you...and this inability to identify who exactly threw the pebble and the impracticality of sensibly addressing each and every concern is what hurts the most. somehow, its almost like "they" all know you but you can't see "them" in the crowd.
i remember witnessing the first mass mobbing of a blog writer on twitter. it was apparently a person who had made the not-uncommon mistake of mentioning the real name of another person in a blogpost containing identifiable ininformation. it was gruesome. people who had no inkling about the blogpost, or the reason behind it, all suddenly felt entitled to pitch in and throw in their derogatory pebbles. from the snippets retweeted, the overwhelmed blogger/twitterer made the further mistake of saying she "doesn't like these subs"...and that was like opening a bandage in the midst of wolves. the anonymous assailants went wild. the mocking became so unbearable that the person evetually deleted her twitter account and maybe even closed the blog temporarily (to much glee from the mob).
and so, in less than 24 hours my blog post on the nigerian blog awards moved me from a completely unknown, 'minding-my-own-business-in-my-corner' type blogger to a twitter victim. and have i been badly bruised. i've been called everything plus a bit more and although i have always wanted fame, i now realize that it takes a thick skin and a quick head to remain in the spotlight for long amidst stinging criticism.
but i will take my own advice. in the face of a mob attack on twitter, running and hiding doesn't help. this is what i would do: (i) befriend the chief attacker; (ii) do not respond to insults at all (don't whimper either. just parley it off with good humour); (iii) switch off from twitter for a while - it will die down and trust me, its not as big a scandal as you think it is (a.k.a: you're really not that important in the scheme of their day) , (iv) take nothing to heart. the person calling you a bigot, racist, faggot, pig, ass, fool, idiot etc does not really know you from adam and would say that to the next person they choose to attack and (v) don't delete your facebook/gmail/blogger/twitter accounts for any reason. the reasons you opened them are still valid, attack or no.
so there, if i survive the twitter mob i will be seeing y'all around :)
P.S: I did apologize to the organizers of the nigerian blog awards for any hard feelings engendered by my post on their website. and they're cool with it.
twas this same me, who went on a tirade of sorts when the results of the nigerian blog awards were announced. i didn't let them hear the last of it. i made one (okay a few) tweets on twitter trying to play the part of the 'sore loser', just to create some memorable drama to an otherwise successful award show. although the process of the awards needed some tweaking, i am better able to coordinate my expressions than to come out unintentionally, as a sore loser. and so, i half expected that anyone reading that post would realize that i wasn't serious at all, and was trying to do the whole "faith hill at the CMA 2007 reaction" type thing.
however, the matter took a different dimension when i got some sincere support from my fans. i couldn't turn around and tell them that i was only kidding without losing some of the seriousness with which they regard my blog posts. so i had to see the act through, and thus could no longer separate the act from the fact. the truth is, i feel that life without drama can be boring and those who know me well, know that my style of being funny is to act out the most ridiculous things. and this was one of those times. i was in no way miffed by the fact that i didn't win...i was actually trying to say something so ridiculously unbelievable that people would say "boohoo, here take a hanky...hater!" and laugh it off. how wrong i was! my blog has received 102 views in the past 2 hours alone on the strength of that post and the twitter mob has been in full swing. deservedly...
you see the thing with public condemnation is simple, there is no ground for logic or reasoning. people are happy to hide behind the curtain of anonymity and throw pebbles at you...and this inability to identify who exactly threw the pebble and the impracticality of sensibly addressing each and every concern is what hurts the most. somehow, its almost like "they" all know you but you can't see "them" in the crowd.
i remember witnessing the first mass mobbing of a blog writer on twitter. it was apparently a person who had made the not-uncommon mistake of mentioning the real name of another person in a blogpost containing identifiable ininformation. it was gruesome. people who had no inkling about the blogpost, or the reason behind it, all suddenly felt entitled to pitch in and throw in their derogatory pebbles. from the snippets retweeted, the overwhelmed blogger/twitterer made the further mistake of saying she "doesn't like these subs"...and that was like opening a bandage in the midst of wolves. the anonymous assailants went wild. the mocking became so unbearable that the person evetually deleted her twitter account and maybe even closed the blog temporarily (to much glee from the mob).
and so, in less than 24 hours my blog post on the nigerian blog awards moved me from a completely unknown, 'minding-my-own-business-in-my-corner' type blogger to a twitter victim. and have i been badly bruised. i've been called everything plus a bit more and although i have always wanted fame, i now realize that it takes a thick skin and a quick head to remain in the spotlight for long amidst stinging criticism.
but i will take my own advice. in the face of a mob attack on twitter, running and hiding doesn't help. this is what i would do: (i) befriend the chief attacker; (ii) do not respond to insults at all (don't whimper either. just parley it off with good humour); (iii) switch off from twitter for a while - it will die down and trust me, its not as big a scandal as you think it is (a.k.a: you're really not that important in the scheme of their day) , (iv) take nothing to heart. the person calling you a bigot, racist, faggot, pig, ass, fool, idiot etc does not really know you from adam and would say that to the next person they choose to attack and (v) don't delete your facebook/gmail/blogger/twitter accounts for any reason. the reasons you opened them are still valid, attack or no.
so there, if i survive the twitter mob i will be seeing y'all around :)
P.S: I did apologize to the organizers of the nigerian blog awards for any hard feelings engendered by my post on their website. and they're cool with it.
Comments
All the best:)
I like your blog nonetheless. You should checking out :)
Yes, the mob brought me to your blog. I read and saw the humor and faux-ridiculousity and it made me laugh. Saw the serious comments and smh. Saw the organizers take it P and interpret the matter into a mob-gathering one. Came to read for myself and saw a guy using his blog to...blog. Simple.
Its alright though. The thing with mobs is, its a senseless gathering. I believe that in itself should console you.
I like your blog, hence I'm going through, reading all the posts I've missed. At least the mob brought you recognition. Nothing spoil.
And I neither deleted my twitter account nor the blog post. The later is privatised, meant for only deserving eyes, n I got more followers. #winning ;)