The thing is that it's very hard, psychologically, to do that. We evolved our social instincts in small roaming bands. When ten or twenty people in such a band attack you, that's tantamount to the whole band turning against you --- and in the nomadic band context, ejection from the group is death. Of course you feel fear when people scream at you and claim you're unfit to be a member of society. Of course you try to address the criticism. Of course you try to be re-accepted into the group.
But now we live on a planet with almost eight billion people screaming at each other. The criticism of a few means nothing.
The old heuristic of counting critics to get a proxy for the opinion of the group doesn't work anymore. But we still fear the rejection of the group, and at some level, deep down, we still interpret an attack from a few people as evidence of deep unpopularity.
Rejecting this instinct is essential for participation in a global conversation. It doesn't come naturally to us, but it can be learned --- just as you can train yourself out of a fear of spiders or heights. It looks like at least some corporate leaders have started to learn the essential skill of not fearing social media loudmouths.
But now we live on a planet with almost eight billion people screaming at each other. The criticism of a few means nothing. The old heuristic of counting critics to get a proxy for the opinion of the group doesn't work anymore. But we still fear the rejection of the group, and at some level, deep down, we still interpret an attack from a few people as evidence of deep unpopularity.
Rejecting this instinct is essential for participation in a global conversation. It doesn't come naturally to us, but it can be learned --- just as you can train yourself out of a fear of spiders or heights. It looks like at least some corporate leaders have started to learn the essential skill of not fearing social media loudmouths.