Categories: Articles

Can You Face Your Own Tweets?

It’s an old bit.

For the seventh time, Jimmy Kimmel, enlists a whole bunch of celebrities to read the terrible things that people have tweeted about them on Twitter. Hilarity ensues (and, it’s not safe for work). You will laugh. You will cringe. And, while I’m one of those people who hates it when anyone attempts to dissect humor or relate it to something serious, I will. There are often times when I see something online, and I feel like taking a jab (or right hook) at someone (some famous… some not). I step away from the keyboard. I don’t do it. Not because I had seen this segment before, but I do ask myself if I would be willing to say whatever it is that I was going to blog, tweet or post to that individual’s face. More often than not, I realize that it could be (at worst) hurtful and (at best) hurtful. Why bother? As great as social media is, many people hide behind it. For my dollar, I love social media because it engenders the opportunity for a real interaction between real individuals. Because of that, I’m not willing to publish anything that I wouldn’t be comfortable saying to someone’s face.

Get ready to laugh… and cringe…

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.