Girls can be especially nasty to each other, on the playground and on the Internet. Over the last few months or more, I participated and been on the sidelines for a particular form of blogging that I call Baiting. I surmised that it's usually done by someone who needs attention. How sad! You know when a blogger puts out something in blogville that is too outlandish just to see how many comments she can get. For example, a picture of their child's poop. That's not too controversial, but it's kind of gross.
You want controversy? How about a whole series of their small child fake smoking a real cigarette, even if the post is set with conditions like "warning these images may make you angry." That's baiting.
Because you know someone out there has loss their dear friend or family member to lung cancer, and it's just plain rude to put 10 consecutive photos of a four year old sucking in, blowing out, coughing with a Kool cig. Oh I suppose there's no harm because the cig wasn't lit, and it sure did strike a funny bone with lots of country folk, but the post wasn't that funny, and I was the commentator who said so.
Successfully baited. Now all the other commentators rise to the defense of their "funny" blogger and call me mean names and such. And I get 50 hits in an hour (raised eyebrow).
So you think I would have learnt my lesson. 1. If you want lots of hits, go against the grain. Or 2. Ignore the baits or the blogger who baits.
I almost fell into the trap again. A blogger, who doesn't live in this county, insists she knows why we Americans are having a "financial crisis." It is the poor people's fault. Really? I told this snippet to Mr. J'sN and he almost fell off his chair laughing.
So after I commented back to her blog, I received a lengthy email/comment on her blog about how I was just so wrong and some revisionist history, and all the other comments (there were only four) rallied to her side. So after sleeping on it, I thought to heck with this.
Why do we blog? To say what we want to say perhaps. It's a soapbox. It's an organizing tool. It's a fun way to see what the rest of the world is doing.
To bait your audience and proceed with the "I am right and you are wrong" is your right. But I for one, grow tired of the stupid game. One will never win with truth or logic in the comment section of another person's blog playing the baiting game.
