You Will Receive Criticism in the Comments — Here’s How to Handle it
By: Kat Kennedy
Tags: Mindfulness, Education, Self Improvement, Life Lessons, Writing

You Will Receive Criticism in the Comments — Here’s How to Handle it

Writing for discourse, not dictatorship

Photo by Victoria Heath

It was a political piece. Some would say that I was asking for it. But nothing I had written was new. The only difference was that I was telling it through my eyes, embellished with anecdotes from my life. So you can imagine that I was quite surprised when my thoughts on the “Invisible America” keeping Trump in power were read and shared thousands of times.

The engagement was excellent. I received plenty of thoughtful comments that were beautifully articulated. The kinds of comments that make me fall in love with Medium time and time again. I was pointed in the direction of prose that would get me probing, theories that would get me thinking, and perspectives that promised to expand my mind. My contribution to the messy spheres of politics and society was far from perfect, but it provided a platform upon which conversations desperate to unfold could occur.

It wasn’t all daisies and rainbows, though. Peppered amongst the well-phrased, thought-provoking discourse from those treading boldly from all walks of life were aggressive notes left by those looking to start a fight, along with patronizing remarks from those who felt they knew me and my deserved place underfoot.

If you’ve never received harsh criticism before, it can feel somewhat akin to being bulldozed, flattening the foundation upon which you stand. No matter your level of expertise in the area, it’s instinctive to doubt yourself in the face of conflict about a point you believe to be true.

It’s very human of you to respond this way, but the criticism is likely to pack the most powerful of punches if it rocks the beliefs upon which you’ve modeled your life or framed your identity. Put plainly: it sucks being made to question our very beings; our egos don’t take to it particularly well.

We have a natural inclination toward loathing criticism directed at us, but this only becomes amplified amongst neurotic individuals that gravitate more toward the anxious end of the spectrum and are arguably more vulnerable. Did your parents criticize you when you were a child? That echoes later in life from peers.

But don’t let this put you off.

I live and work in academia. I wouldn’t call myself an academic per se; in fact, I detest much of the current academic structure and pretentiousness associated with it. But if there’s one thing that doing a PhD has exposed me to, it’s criticism and I’m grateful for it.

I’m a scientist and as such, I follow the scientific method. Science differs from other “belief systems”, if you will, in that it is self-correcting. As scientists, we strive to know the truth and put our hypotheses to the test with the most robust, rigorous experiments possible. We peer review each other’s work and make it our job to identify any holes, flaws, or ambiguity, aiming to present our best work for the collective good. We also welcome the evolution of ideas and innovation that, over time, expose many things as being incorrect.

This training has helped immensely in navigating negative comments on articles I’ve written over the years because it allows me to quickly distinguish between the good, the bad, and the ugly. I write primarily about science, health, writing, or personal stories, but I occasionally dabble in areas more prone to harsh critiques, such as complaints about the US, from my perspective as a British person living here.

Using a few questions I’ll share below, I’m able to discern between garbage and comments worth responding to. Whether you’re writing for academia, a platform like Medium, the news, or whatever else, here are my tips for navigating negative comments.