What should we do with criticism?

As you know, Syed is on vacation somewhere in the wilds of Washington State. This guest post is by Amanda Roberts of WordScrawl.

A few days ago, Chris Garrett posted on his blog regarding critics. Mr. Garrett says that all bloggers should ask themselves a series of six questions (which you can find in his post) before responding to a critic. While I think Mr. Garrett makes a good point, I think there are some things that need to be addressed.

Not all critics are bad: Mr. Garrett states in his post that “critics are often people with chips on their shoulders” who know it is easier to criticize someone one than to create something. While it is true that it is much easier to avoid original thought than create something, I don’t think most critics have chips on their shoulders. Any time you have an opinion, there will be someone out there who disagrees with you, and I think that if they voice it than it should be treated as a serious and valid thought. Just because someone is passionate about something, doesn’t mean they have a chip on their shoulder (or anywhere else for that matter). And while yes, not all critics are trying to help, why can’t we turn it into something helpful?

While the fact that I am criticizing (gently) Mr. Garrett’s post might invalidate me in some of your eyes, I think that as bloggers we all need to be open to the exchange of ideas. Many of us started blogging to get a voice; we wanted to get on our soapbox and voice our opinions, regardless of the consequences. One of those consequences though is opposing thoughts. The internet is one of the last truly free spaces we have where we can voice our opinions with some kind of anonymity, so what better place to voice a conflicting idea? If all of us were to censor or hide from the critics out there, we would just be virtual kindergarteners with our fingers in our ears. So from that perspective, isn’t it our duty as bloggers to allow and respond to criticism?

On the other hand: While I do take all criticisms as valid and try to address them, Mr. Garrett is right that sometimes it is just not worth it to fight back; that is exactly why we shouldn’t. Bloggers and people in general shouldn’t bite back when criticized, no matter how asinine the opinion seems to us. If we truly think we can articulate ourselves well enough to have a blog in the first place, why can’t we articulate our responses better? Sticks and stones dear bloggers; don’t let a conflicting opinion drag you down in the eyes of your readers. It takes ten minutes to sit down and think of a nice way (or nicer way) of saying something; if we can all do that then what is the point of responding badly, or worse, not responding at all, to criticisms?