Ghosts, Trolls and other critters

The 2 Per-Specht-ives Podcast gets spooky in the current age of communication by shining a light on ghosting and trolls. 

Hosts David and Joshua Specht dive into the uncomfortable side of texting and social media today, and figure out the how, why and next steps to get over these 21st Century irritations.

Your generational lesson: We are all going to have messages ghosted and get trolled by someone on social media, it’s up to us to be intentional in following up on important messages and our responses, if any, to the trolls. 

Your Gen. X Advice: Ghosting is a priority thing — if a text was sent and didn’t answer, that person is busy. If it’s important and you need an answer, you need to follow up.

Your Gen. Z Advice: As we encounter trolls, we need to ask ourselves if there’s any truth in whatever they’re saying. And, we can’t go on the offensive and let our mad get our money.

We’ve all been ghosted — have someone quit responding to your texts or calls. In fact, it goes way back to avoiding a phone call thanks to caller id or ignoring messages left on answering machines, but it wasn’t so rampant. Now, there are more options and  ways to ghost people.

Realize that ghosting is a priority thing. With texts, you know people received the text because their phones are glued to them. But if a text was sent and unanswered, give that person the grace that he/she is busy and missed it, or is too focused on their current task to respond.

If you call or send a text/email and don’t get a response — don’t assume that person never got it or it’s being ignored. It’s up to you to follow up with another text or phone call if you need a response on something important.

Social media has created a wave of trolls — social media users who can attack your character with no repercussions — and we often have to be the bigger person and ignore it. 

As we encounter trolls, we need to ask ourselves if there’s any truth in whatever they’re saying. We also have to ask if these types of comments physically affect our daily lives, because if they’re not, then we need to let it go.

However, one company has proved that we can make being snarky a part of our business brand. Wendy’s has proved how their humorous trolling of other commenters and competitors on social media can go viral and give free publicity.