I just read a bit about the rub on social media sites between honest negative opinion and the courtesy of professional image.
We may not like your customer’s appearance, political penchant, habits, mannerisms, or whatever, but we don’t need to offer our opinion to his or her face. At home or in the bar room Saturday evening, we let our hair down. And sometimes get embarrassed when we let something slip.
It’s not a new problem; it’s just that social media sites (digg, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.) have offered a medium to accentuate embarrassing problems. One’s private remarks are publicly available, sometimes to our surprise.
Of course, there are things we should never say anywhere at anytime. Other things are, well, arguably negative, facts being what they are. Murder and stealing are bad ideas in any forum, and it is a good thing to say so, tactfully, even if people get offended by the truth.
But there is something more. The economic theory associated with names like Prechter and Elliot suggests that the herd of humanity moves in substantive measure as an emotional unit and that the herd emotions drive markets bullish or bearish.
Part of that theory suggests that the mood of the herd in a bear market becomes relatively more negative, even antagonistic. If this is correct, social media arenas may become more antagonistic, generating forms of insulation and isolation, for example.
Of course, I am not advocating antagonism, and we all slip up saying or posting negative things we should not. Nor can I change mass psychology single handed.
What I am concerned about is insulation and isolation from honesty and truth. If out of fear or misguided politeness, we deceive others and ourselves, in the end we hurt others and ourselves. Sometimes even in our businesses in the long run. We reap what we sow. As someone said, “Speak the truth in love.”
Peter Rubel
Tags: bear market, embarrassing, honesty, Social Media
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