Stereotypes. They are everywhere. Stereotypes usually stem from real world observations. Someone noticed some African Americans listening to rap music and stereotyped that “all blacks listen to rap music.” Someone noticed some Asian Americans somewhere studying hard and stereotyped that “all Asians are nerds.” Someone noticed some Caucasian Americans wanting their children to stay away from non-Caucasian people and stereotyped that “all whites hate other races.” Someone noticed some Mexican worker working on a farm and stereotyped that “all Mexicans are poor farmers and work in low paying jobs.” Funny thing is that every ethnicity on this planet is engaged in every stereotype I listed above. Even funnier is the idea that many of you will not ask me as to why I only listed the famous stereotypes for these ethnicities and not the less popular ones.

The blogging world is no different that the offline world when it comes to stereotypes and stereotypical behavior and trends. They are both full of such things. Bloggers, readers, commentors: all of them are stereotyped, and many stereotypes exist on a large scale. I try to avoid many things everyday by doing something that is the exact opposite. Why? Because I consider many things to be stereotypical traits that do more harm than good.

Following are 5 blogging mentality stereotypes that exist today. I will try to explain them briefly, while hoping that they simply die.

5 blogging mentality stereotypes that should be identified more and reduced

1. Considering every reader to be right, otherwise mistreating them

   The “customer is always right” slogan has traumatized me for years. While the entire world is lining up behind that sentence, the mentality of considering someone with money to be always in a better position destroys the concept of emotion, honesty, values, certain goals, and respect and appreciation. You are a paying customer? You rock. You are not a customer? Sorry, call this other hotline and a sales person will sell you the products so you can become a customer, and only then will we consider you to be worth our time.

   The blogging world is slowly but surely implementing this mentality also. “Readers are always right“, someone told me that last month, and I laughed. I laughed so hard I started wondering if I was unconsciously faking my laugh. I was not. When will we have the courage to change the business and life model away from stereotypical capitalism and focus on the issue and the people, instead of glorifying someone simply because of their money?

   Don’t be afraid to tell a reader that you respect them but you do not know them enough to be their friend. If your reader does something wrong, tell them if you want to. Respect is not the concern here; doing something is. Don’t be afraid to disagree with a reader. Don’t be afraid to pinpoint bad things while showing your side of things. Just be prepared to show why you think your point may be right, while maintaining respect. I am not talking about the stereotypical, crappy and stupid line that everyone throws around everyday “..with all due respect.” I hate that sentence; if you disagree with me, please never tell me that sentence. Just maintain respect and I will notice it, even if you are disagreeing strongly. What good is respect if I can’t see it without you telling me that it exists with that specific line? Majority of the time I hear those words, I know the person saying them is lying. “Hey, with all due respect, I think you can go suffer you moron.” Sure, it’s funny to say in sarcasm, but besides that, I hope I never say it.

   Instead, I am talking about real respect that does not damage your relationship with someone like your parents or siblings if they were in the same situation as the reader; focus here is on that same kind of respect, not the relationship. Otherwise, all you are doing is faking appreciation.

2. Going only after certain people, and not everyone, because of their status

   I have three, very short stories to tell you. Please tell me whether or not I was the victim in these stories, or if it was my fault.

   One: a man got off a bus today and told me to tell him the time. I said I was not wearing a watch, so he said I was a poor moron for not having a watch as he really needed to find out the time.

   Second: Darren Rowse, the owner of ProBlogger, bumped into me today at a coffee shop and spilled the drinks I was carrying, and he did not even apologize. I called him out but he walked off, ignoring me.

   Third: A lady with a baby stroller and a baby in the stroller was crossing the street when the walking sign was off, as she had to catch the bus. I rolled down my window and told her that she should not do that, even if she had a baby. She apologized, but I kept telling her the same thing and scolding her as she almost caused an accident in which many people could have died.

   Whose fault was it in every story? Should anyone be blamed in each case? Was the bus man rude? Was Darren rude? Was I rude?

   All of the above stories are false. No man asked me the time today. I did not run into Darren Rowse of ProBlogger. No lady with a baby stroller cut me on the road today. Then, why did I tell you these stories?

   When you read each story, what did you think? Who did you side with? Did you think of how I may have answered the bus man very rudely, causing him to react in the same manner? Did you immediately think that Darren may not have heard me, and that is why he did not respond to me? Did you wonder whether or not the stroller woman had started walking when the pedestrian walking sign was on, but halfway the sign turned off? Did you wonder whether or not Darren Rowse actually spilled my drinks simply because of the name “Darren Rowse“? Would you have wondered exactly the same if I have not mentioned his name as a name for the character in such a story?

   Did you blame anyone in these stories or give anyone the benefit of the doubt, to like me or Darren Rowse, simply because you think you know me or Darren a little bit? My involvement or the name of Darren Rowse should not have resulted in any benefit of the doubt or blame, unless you know some thing about me and watches, me and driving and my interaction with human lives, or Darren Rowse spilling other people’s drinks and not apologizing. Without such knowledge, any benefit or blame you give or put on a person simply because of their identity instead of finding out more or judging the events and not the unrelated status of a person may be stereotypical and harmful. Same is the case with things like politics or religion. For example, I try to ignore all praise by religious bloggers that aim to glorify some other religious blogger, when the praise exists slowly because one is religious and the topic in question has nothing to do with religion.

   Sorry Darren for making you think “What the heck? I did not bump into any drinks today!!!” I hope you don’t mind me using you as an example of the fictitious story to prove an important point. I had to show a current good example valid today of a good blogger on many levels to show a point of how people can simply assume things without inquiring and thinking more. Same goes for people who immediately give benefit of the doubt or blame others because of someone’s religion, political belief, gender, etc.

3. Jumping on the bandwagon whether or not we like it

   Appreciating people is a philosophy. Many businesses turn it into a cash generating tool. Similarly, using nofollow tags or optimizing your site for SEO because everyone else is doing it is jumping on the bandwagon simply because someone else is also benefiting from it. Earlier this year everyone was talking about Day of Silence. What good has that done? Can someone go ask all the prominent bloggers if they ever called or mailed a single letter, or even took the time to visit the affected families? No, an extra post “Day of Silence” is what many bloggers simply jumped on.

   For some bloggers, it’s supposedly a humanitarian issue [in reality it's not, all offline humanitarians of all sizes are laughing at such immaturity], and thus following such a trend will result in people looking up to them.

4. Not questioning things

   Pessimistic. Optimistic. People throw these terms around as if one of them could be wrong. No major event in history was changed by an optimistic person who never saw or pointed out bad things. You have to point out the bad or notice it in order to change it.

   It is in times of dire needs when anyone who notices bad things is called a pessimist. I notice more bad than good in many things, and that is why I can keep on trying to improve things around me and improve myself too. Many people who always talk about positive things and never talk about the bad that may be happening usually tend to do keep focusing on the happy things in life. That is fine, but such people are not the ones who can sincerely forget their happiness for a while in order to understand the suffering others may be going through. Without such understanding, there can be no real solution by such people to any problem other than an illusion of a solution.

5. Infusing offline ideas into the online world immaturely

   Many offline ideas do not go well in many people’s lives. Many people are trying to bring offline concepts into the online world and at the same time, they are not approaching them correctly.

   The best example of this is friendship: many people online call everyone else their friends. A person meets a business partner? Friends. A person finds out a reader is agreeing with them? Friends. Anyone who brings you money or more traffic is your friend according to many people.

   I say all such mentalities are immature and weak. Just because a reader comments on this site does not make him or her my friend. Just because a person tells me about their parents or family problems does not mean I can give online advice without knowing the whole story. Just because a new person online asks me a personal question does not mean I should tell them everything.

   A few months ago an online person asked me a very personal question and I decided to answer to see their reaction. I noticed that person not respecting my answer, and not caring. They simply asked because that is what we do: ask things while not meaning to ask them. I like the idea of merging several things, but only when done maturely or with great attention.

That is the beginning. These stereotypes exist around us in the online world. Such stereotypes are hard to get rid of because of many reasons. One of them is that without stereotypes many people cannot prosper. Imagine the different blogs and bloggers who gain money and fame because of the existence of the above stereotypes?

These 5 stereotypical traits, along with many others, exist in almost every other blog today, and they must die if we are to achieve any kind of progress. Otherwise, all we will have remaining are words, words and more words, where everyone simply talks about things while only focusing on money earned through deception, and nothing else. Not people, not emotions, not goals, not benefits, nothing. Only stereotypes that do more harm than good. That is not right.

What do you think?

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