Some Positive Feedback
Posted on: October 9, 2014
- In: Everyday Life | Faith
- 1 Comment
Be quick to hear,
and be deliberate in answering.
If you have understanding, answer your neighbor;
but if not, put your hand on your mouth.
~ Sirach 5:11-12*
Whether it’s a letter to the editor, a reply to a Twitter or Facebook post, or a response to an online news story or a blog post, we’re often a bit too ready to press “Enter.” And there’s no “Recall” button.
I’m not focussing on spelling mistakes or the oddities produced by autocorrect but on the harshness of some online comments. At times they do nothing more than show contempt for the person’s beliefs or point of view; at others, strangely, the criticism centres on the person’s IQ or physique.
And, sadly, the amount of positive feedback is pitifully small by comparison.
I’m not sure whether we feel comfortable saying negative things because an avatar or a screen name hides our identity or whether there’s just a tendency in our society to accentuate the negative. But while we don’t to have withhold negative feedback, we could phrase it in ways that seem less like personal attacks.
Maybe if we took a little time before clicking “Send” or “Post,” we’d realize that we needed to tone down the language to make the comment more constructive than destructive—or that we didn’t need to comment at all.
Maybe we could also offer some positive feedback. Say, on an online store survey, or in the ratings section of a music or an app download site.
And maybe we could carry this into the real world and compliment people who’ve provided great customer service, given interesting presentations, or been key players in the success of a fundraiser.
I pray that our online feedback would be more positive than negative and that this would spill over into our face-to-face dealings with others.
(*Scripture quote taken from the Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.)
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A Catholic Convert in Ottawa 
October 9, 2014 at 8:23 pm
Walt Disney, Bambi and Thumper: “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” niceties are slowly going by way of the garbage can but on a positive note some of the young ones are saying please and thank-you its not all negative lets look to the young’uns for a positive at the end of the day.