The Latest in a Long List

My beef with the online community-social media-whatever you want to call it could go on for days. But lately, I have been especially perturbed by one aspect in particular.

Whatever happened to reading something, disagreeing, and moving on with your life? Or better yet, whatever happened to common sense? People say things online that they would NEVER say to someone's face (I should hope). That's still a person. Some individual is going to read your comment and probably have their feelings hurt. If your mom heard you say that (or saw you type that) she'd knock you to next Tuesday.

Some examples:

Dear old Pinterest provides many ideas for new ways to do your hair. Apparently, if you see a picture, read a two sentence description, and then try it, it should work on every head of hair ever created. If for some reason it goes awry, the person who posted it is clearly a moron who can't teach and deserves to go bald.

Some websites (blogs, Pinterest, you name it) have cute little tips for turning a muffin tin upside down and making cookie cups, taco salad bowls, cute little party hats...anything under the sun. If yours don't turn out perfectly? No possible way your oven is different, your muffin tin is different, you read wrong, it was a fluke, you live in the high humidity constant summer hell of Texas, you had a momentary attack of stupid. Nope, it's the idea person's fault. The only acceptable course of action is to berate him/her online.

Let me be clear, I know that investing in a craft or project and it failing is FRUSTRATING. My best bud and I tried to make a paint handprint Christmas ornament thing of her infant son's hand and it was a massive failure. Was it the little lady's fault who posted the idea on Pinterest? No. We only have ourselves to blame. We forgot that infants cannot be commanded to spread out their fingers. We didn't think about how the feel of a foreign substance all over an infants' hand would prompt a clenching reaction. We didn't consider that maybe the crafty idea is best tried with a sedated two year old. That's on us. Our bad. BUT did we go online and tear that little old lady a new one? Nope. We had a good laugh and put the poor infant in the bath.

Some times I can't trust everything I read online. Sometimes people are different than me. Sometimes I should just shut my mouth.

How did I learn this and not the rest of the general online public?