Brian Solis reports "From the get go, many believe that this interview was destined to fail. The angst and rebellion percolated to a boiling point and halfway through keynote, the mob revolted. Several attendees were more vocal than others, heckling her by shouting disruptively, "ask something interesting" and "let us ask the questions."
"She was suddenly hurt and upset, finding herself alone on stage in front of hundreds of Facebook enthusiasts and zealots. They thought that they were defending him and did so by viciously tearing down his host."
Regardless of how good or bad Sarah handled the interview one must ask , is tearing her down the social thing to do? Open criticism is one thing but vicious attacks are another. When people attack others it typically represents the desire or need for one to put others down as an attempt at putting themselves up. In reality when we attack others we are actually putting ourselves down.
How Many of Us Like to Attack?
The fabric of human nature is inherently designed to err. The higher ones public profile the more visible the "mistakes" are to the public. The media is quick to pick up on errors made by celebrities, politicians and business executives and these errors have become the stories in the daily news. Yesterday there was a public dissections of Elliott Spitzer about his fall from grace both personally and publically. Did it make us feel good to feel disgust for his error?
The social web has given the public power to use and in some cases abuse. As a regular and imperfect blogger I sometimes get vicious emails from people I don't even know attacking my poor use of grammar or spelling errors in my post. I ask myself, do these people think I am in school and they are my teacher or do they simply spend all their time screening blogs for bad grammar and spelling errors. I'll be the first to admit that my grammar is not always right, you may even find an error in this post, but really I am not pretending to be the Editor of Business Week rather I am a blogger expressing an opinion, right, wrong and indifferent.
Sarah is a profiled writer at Business Week and should be prepared for critical reviews but the attacks have provoked her own response which appeared on Twitter this morning as " seriously screw all you guys. I did my best to ask a range of things". Attacks seem to create more vicious responses. Her response will now hurt her public profile. Maybe she should consider hiring Brian.
Can We Maintain Humility and Dignity?
Humility is the defining characteristic of an unpretentious and modest person, someone who does not think that he or she is better or more important than others. The term "humility" is derived from the Latin word "humilis", which is translated not only as humble but also alternatively as "low", or "from the earth". Because the concept of humility addresses intrinsic self-worth, it is emphasized in the realm of religious practice and ethics where the notion is often made more precise and extensive. Ever heard of "the last shall be first and the first shall be last"?
The term "dignity" is defined as "the state of being worthy of honor or respect" When this concept is associated with the adjective "human", it is used to signify that all human beings possess inherent worth and deserve unconditional respect, regardless of age, sex, health status, social or ethnic origin, political ideas, religion, or our history of errors. In other words, this respect is owed to every individual by the mere fact that he or she is a "member of the human network".
At the philosophical level the expression human dignity is used to indicate that persons should always be treated as ends in themselves and never merely as means. There is nothing, neither pleasure nor common interest of society or science, nor other good consequences, for which it is morally acceptable to treat persons merely as a means.
So with all that I ask, if we are the new media shall we follow form and make stories about peoples mistakes, errors and human frailty or shall we turn the tide of history in media? The social web has given us the power now it is our choice as to what we do with it and how we do it.
What say you?