Personally I don't mind being abused by strangers. It's much better than being abused by friends and family. If you don't know the details of a hater you can't really trust their opinion.
I was walking down K Rd a few weeks back when a man stumbled out of a bar and tried to punch me in the face. He missed, fell over and cracked his head on the gutter. The guy didn't know me so I wasn't offended that he wanted to hit me. I just wrote him off as a crazy person randomly lashing out. However if my little sister Imogen stumbled out of a bar and tried to kill me I would be very upset.
Equally I have no problem with strangers tweeting "Matt Heath is a f@%kwit". But every time my best mate Spooge does it I get offended. To be fair Spooge has his reasons.
The closer the source of the insult the worse it hurts. One night after a few drinks l accidentally cyberbullied myself. I got right under my own skin with a series of vicious and accurate online insults. It was hard to write those off as ill informed.
Who knows why people post mean stuff? Maybe their life is crap, maybe they're psychotic, maybe they're bored and don't really care or maybe they're right. Before you start crying you need to check credentials. If a stranger tweets that you have Ebola, laugh it off. If your doctor tweets that you have Ebola then maybe do something about it. Being publicly mean isn't a new thing. Film, TV and music reviewers have been printing nasty comments for generations. Like cyberbullies, many "official" critics get their jollies from ripping people to shreds.
As Anton Ego said, "The work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so."
A few reviewers in this country should probably rewatch Ratatouille before their next slagging match.
There is of course good-quality mean criticism. There is also good-quality cyberbullying.
The abusive tweets and texts directed at my radio show are top notch. Every week we run a Cyberbully Monday where we invite our listeners to bully us and win prizes. I feel honoured that people take the time to brutally bring me and my co-host down to size.
Here are some from last week. "Matt the features of your face could be greatly enhanced by a burqa", "Oh what's that! It's all over my foot. I just stood in some Matt Heath", "Matt Heath & Jeremy Wells ride peddle bikes" and, most cutting of all, "Yuck Matt Heath is a pervert who gets off on being cyberbullied".
Quality accurate stuff.
As an adult you should be able to cherry pick the cyberbullying you want to take on board and discard the stuff you don't. There is a saying about sticks and stones that settled the issue a long time ago.
If I was a rich, talented woman like Anne Hathaway I'd find it easy to ignore the mean stuff. Especially after a sensational turn in Interstellar. When you are that good in films you have no reason to care that strangers like me think you're a bit of a dick.
