While people tend to think of social media as a place to gather the feedback of their peers, does the influx of negative comments mean criticism is not taken on board? Has it just become a court of public opinion (which is often quite negative just for the sake of being negative)? Does this mean that genuine concern or constructive criticism is not taken on board as it is all painted with the same brush?

There is a famous quote that I can't seem to find the original source of and it is:

"Opinions are like A$$holes.  Everyone has one but they think each other's stink!"

I think this pretty much sums up social media for me.  As an elder millennial, I have been here since the inception of social media, and have witnessed it rise and fall.  From conversing via ICQ or in MSN chat rooms (the #melbourne chat is where I met my now husband btw) through to having my favourite in-the-moment song as my theme on MySpace, I had them all.  Soon it pivoted to places like Facebook and X.  I have spent around 11 years following the paranormal on social media and at one point it seemed like a really great place to find like-minded people.  There has been a decline over recent years.  I feel like I have noticed this with humanity in general, and while it could also be my age and I am just becoming a grumpy middle-aged lady, I just feel like people have changed.  They are not as nice, they are not as patient and the entitlement seems to be flowing.  When you have a place like social media, which is completely unregulated, people can say things or behave in a way that they would not dare to in person.  It has also become a breeding ground for misinformation with a mentality of "if you aren't doing it my way, you are doing it wrong".  This is obviously quite problematic when it comes to paranormal research.

In 2017, I published an article called Peer review is so much more important than Facebook likes which was basically encouraging paranormal researchers/investigators to seek out the opinion of their peers rather than just posting sensationalised content on social media for likes.  Boy did I get a lot of backlash for this.  There were a lot of comments like "I will post what I want on my pages!" but using more colourful language.  They were missing my point.  My initial point was that instead of just automatically posting something online to say look at this video hit that like button, consult your trusted paranormal peers for their opinions to help potentially debunk or offer insight on this suggested evidence.  It was pointed out to me as well that a lot of people do just that by posting on social media, but it sort of gets lost in the noise and the sensationalism because really, people don't want to watch a boring video where nothing happens.  When you do have something that is potentially really good, that is sometimes when the internet trolls come out with their opinions that you haven't invited but you sort of have because you have posted it publicly.  It comes with the territory.  Some of the worst comments can actually come from fellow paranormal investigators and groups because you dare to do something differently to them.

So it gets to a stage where you ask, what is even the point?

The paranormal field is largely unregulated.  Sometimes we do need to be checked by our peers.  I know there are things or mistakes I have made in the past, and I didn't even really think I was crossing a line until I spoke to peers.  No one is perfect and we are all going to make mistakes.  It is how we grow from them which I think defines us.  Do we take accountability and look at growing as a person or do we shift the blame onto someone else?  One of the things that always blows my mind is that when a person does not so great things, instead of taking accountability, the anger is directed at a person who is bringing them in check.  Instead of taking accountability, the blame is shifted.  Jealousy is often used as the number one reason or excuse.  I think this is self-serving and not the case in the majority of cases.  While yes it may be true in some circumstances, but if someone is calling out something, it is usually out of concern, not out of jealousy.  Blaming jealousy again is another way to shift responsibility.

People have varying levels of what they think is OK and what isn't, and that is also why there is so much division in the paranormal field.  The problem with this rise in interaction on social media is that when so much of it has largely become negative, people tend to not listen to any sort of feedback as their defence mechanisms automatically kick in.  As humans, taking criticism is hard.  I do get hurt by some of the comments made to me even when they are constructive.  Tone is hard to interpret on social media and there can be a fine line between offering constructive criticism and intelligent discussion through to a downright attack.

So where do we go from here?  For peer review to work, people need to be receptive to it and ready to accept that they may be wrong or may not have found what they are looking for.  I think a lot of it comes down to what you want to get out of your paranormal journey.  If you just want to go and experience things, attend investigations, snap some photos, do some recordings and keep it all for you then you go for it!  If you really want to go further and document things in an attempt to produce what you believe to be evidence of the paranormal, not only be prepared to stand by it, but be prepared to be wrong.  The paranormal is extremely personal and even just today I was talking to someone who had never had a paranormal experience before.  They have been out investigating with me before, more to see what it was like but never really thought much about it.  They had an experience in their daily life that to them made them really step back and say "wow".  Yes, I can go in and debunk what happened.  We could say it was a coincidence, and she was reading into nothing.  It didn't really matter because to her, it was something special.  She doesn't need the court of public opinion or a set of peers to tell her what she experienced; it was something she knew in her heart.  Maybe there is a reason there are no firm answers out there and maybe they aren't meant to be discovered, just experienced. 

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