Whiners and Aggressors in Social media

This article is given birth specifically by posts seen on the Craigslist Albany Musicians section, but also applies to my experiences on chat services on Yahoo, including Yahoo groups, and others that are similar. Specifically I am referring to the people who post to whine about something that happened to them, and the people who post simply to rile up the whiners.

The Whiners
Sometimes it's good to have a public place to tell your horror story. It can be great for other people in the same situation to know who to avoid, and what not to do. This is all fine and good, but then there are the whiners. Whiners start out like this, but then go on and on, taking whining to new levels and worst of all to the world audience who frankly for the most part are just trying to find someone to play music with, to be a promoter, or trying to get laid, or whatever.

The aggressors
On the other end of the spectrum there are the people who don't have enough excitement in real life, no, they get their rocks off by going into these social media services and shaking it like a beehive to get everyone inside buzzing real good before they run off to find someone else to annoy. I don't know who these people are, but my guess is that they are Teens. Some you can tell are teens. Jobless, they don't have anything better to do, they haven't entered real life away from mom and dad yet, and they haven't the least idea of what it's like to go hungry because they missed that job posting, that gig, that great deal on a tool they NEED that someone is giving away for cheap or free.

Let it go
Then there's every one else, we are stuck in the middle. We are forced to wade through all of that BS trying to have real conversations or trying to further our real lives. We have two choices in these situations: Confront and console to try to get them to stop, or keep quiet and wade through the mess losing valuable time and risk missing that post which might lead to the next gig, that great art gallery, the perfect studio space, or heaven knows the woman you'd fall in love with (my condolances). the second is the best answer, really. The trouble is, NO ONE does it! There's always at least one person who falls for the bait and can't help replying. If you reply, you keep it going... it's what the aggressors and whiners WANT! Stick to business only and they will disappear... Let it GO!