Hi

I normally hangout on the LLL page but came across this influencer recently and thought I would share my perspective. Let me state the obvious first, bullying in our society is a serious a problem, and I would be a huge advocate for Cocos Law.
I have to say I found Michelle’s content on this very superficial. Her sweeping generalisation of Irish women was an uninformed and divisive in my opinion. I believe we all define success differently – for me it might be contentment, for someone else it might be wealth. Nothing wrong with either. But to state that Irish woman don’t like to see others succeed out of jealousy and begrudgery is not at all true.
I work in global company and a lucky to have the opportunity to work across many cultures. I believe culturally Irish people are less impressed by stature and material wealth. And I think that’s one of the reasons other cultures find us charming and personable. People are “judged” a little differently here. Most people are not impressed by how much you earn, what bag you wear, how you look or how many followers you have.
I think in Ireland you are expected to be a little bit of everything – strong but gentle, grateful but want more, humble but confident, generous but not extravagant. And I love that about our culture, I think it keeps us real and grounded and I want my children to grow up in a society where they need to prove their worth by how they behave in every situation and not one particular definition of success. So the jealous argument is far too simplistic.
Social media attracts people with egotistical personality traits, and I don’t say this in a derogatory sense. But you have to be somewhat egotistical to be comfortable selling yourself in public like they do. Not all of course, but I think it has fast become a feeding ground for narcissists and is becoming more and more saturated with this type of personality.
In real life Irish culture is accepting of and shaped by calling out something as BS – so when family and friends speak in boastful ways we tend to bring people back down to reality and remind them they the need to be a little bit of everything as above.
One problem with social media is that there is a grey area around who is a friend and who is an acquaintances. Influencers sell themselves as your friend, but the reality is, they are not. And when people feel familiar enough with them to challenge them in whatever way they see as normal or acceptable then this flaw of the platform becomes apparent. The average narcissist does not want to hear criticism and tends to take it personally. And I understand this, it threatens their definition of success in a very public way.
If we view influencers as a business acquaintance and what happens in real life is when a business does something we want to call out – we email customer services, post on google reviews, trip advisor, Glassdoor, Revoo, etc but there is nothing in this customer services / redress space for influencers so I think tattle has filled this void.
The reason I believe there is more hate around these days is because the social media platforms that are a huge part of our society don’t really align with some aspects of our culture. There doesn’t seem to be a voice for people who want to challenge the content of influencers. Not hate, but feedback the will help keep the influencer scene honest, something that is in everyone’s interest.
Looking at it from my own point of view, I see how social media is changing people and I really don’t like it. I don’t accept the ‘jog on’ solution that influencers have offered. I found tattle and was relieved that there was others like me who see the problems with this scene. I am not a troll, I am not a bully, I don’t spread hate. I am not masked, just a little shy and private but still want to have a voice. I am happy with my lot, so not jealous. Just here to do my bit to create a better society for my kids.
Tattle is not the problem or neither is our Irish culture,
one side not having a voice is the real problem. Blaming tattle and irish culture is irresponsible and just pushed the 2 sides further into their own corners and is only going to make the bullying problem worse. There are 2 valid arguments to this debate and if influencers really want to address bullying the only way forward is to acknowledge both sides so that tattle and Insta supporters can work at resolving the bullying problem together.