Maintaining Your Identity in the Media in Times of Trolls

hi there

my name is jamie alter class of 1999

graduate of woodstock school and i’m

here today

very happy that i was approached by

woodstock to give this

10x talk well a little bit about my

career

uh i’m a journalist a writer

an actor and over the last let’s say

year and a half

also a youtuber it’s really funny how

how life

sends you down a direction which you

perhaps have never envisioned you’d be

you’ve been going down

um so yeah after graduating in 1999

from woodstock where i was there for

about eight

eight and a half years i set off to the

u.s as you

often do when you graduate from

woodstock to a

scenic little town in ohio called

worcester where i studied

at the college of worcester and it was

in the

year and a half or so after graduating

from worcester that i spent

largely in the boston area that i

realized that

a i did not fit in to the states having

been born and raised in india despite

being a fourth generation american in

india i was

by all accounts indian so it was a

mixture of being a little homesick and

not sure what i wanted to do with my

life

and also being being in a job just

outside boston where i was not really

really happy and a day came when i

remember i shoveled

ice and snow off my car and i drove down

route 9

the 45 to 50 minute drive and i got to

office and i sat down and you know

and i asked myself where do you see

yourself in in five years

and the answer came back to me

definitely not behind this desk of this

insurance firm outside of boston so as

things happen

that mixture of being homesick and

really wanting to do something where

i incorporated my love which was which

was cricket and writing i said i want to

become

a cricket writer a sports writer the

topic of today’s

tedx talk is maintaining your identity

in times of trolls and hatred uh it’s a

topic which

i i know a lot about and i’ve chosen

because i think in this increasingly

shrinking world of ours

when you put yourself out there you know

in individual medium or the print medium

be it as a writer a blogger a content

creator you know

um i think in many ways what we’ve seen

now especially due to the pandemic and

the subsequent lock now

everyone is now able to become a content

creator just by flipping

their their their camera or you know or

just the camera screen

or putting on um pressing record on

their phones or whatever device you have

to capture

images and and video because you can now

go on to youtube instagram twitter

so many different social media and

visual medium

avenues for you to uh to become a

digital content creator

and this is the space that i i found

myself in when i took the call to leave

mainstream media and see see what i

could do on my own

could i could i successfully run a

business like a website could i could i

try the acting

um so i’ve i’ve been part of a few web

series and a few movies a lot a lot

more of this kind of work is coming out

hopefully by the end of 2021 or early

so like i was saying when you put

yourself out there uh

read your thoughts or you open up your

house to show where you live or you’re

recording videos

as many of us did during the lockdown um

you have to then accept that people not

everyone’s going to like what you do

not everyone is going to agree with your

views

and in these in these increasing

increasingly shrinking times polarizing

times when

people can hide behind an anonymous name

or a display picture on social media

and and abuse you or call you out or

just say

anything they want to say i’m not saying

it’s all negative there’s a lot of

positive

comments and feedback and really a

validation of

good things which you do like i can say

personally the work

uh the kind of things that i did uh

during the lockdown

both on my personal channel as well as

on my cricut channel

and as well as on my wife meha’s channel

she’s a sports anchor

the things like this have really taught

us that you know people will

will appreciate and value what you do

especially if you can put a smile on

their face and make them feel happy

during

during unprecedented times like the like

the kobe 19 pandemic

but you also have to uh to deal with the

negative that comes and

um i’ll be very honest with you there

are times when you know you put up

you put out a video where you thought it

was it was enlightening or entertaining

and people

would bring in a whole different strand

and say you know

various things i’m not going to get into

the nitty-gritty here because a lot of

it is

is is not even worth replicating here

but you know it’s very very important to

maintain your

identity and and it’s it’s it’s been a

challenge i

uh there are times when you know it it

hits your ego

it hits your morale you wonder you know

really can can one comment put you

down can one come and put you in a funk

and one comment make you feel like

it wasn’t worth it and and you learn you

know it’s a constantly evolving process

where you realize that you know hey

people are not

are not going to are not going to agree

and to my

mind you you have the option of ignoring

these people ignoring the trolls as as

they’re called

oh you have the option of you know

saying hey i’m going to try and i’m

going to try and convince someone i’m

going to try and

change someone i’m going to try and you

know figure out why this person is so

negative why they have this hatred even

in inside them you know so you have

these challenges it is not easy let me

be very very brutally honest with you

there have been times when i spent hours

engaging with at times an anonymous

person because i wanted to i want to

clear first of all their misconceptions

and i wanted to clear the doubts because

when you put up

when you put a comment on on someone’s

social media

platform on on their youtube page

anywhere where that person’s views and

and identity and

even their persona their characters out

there unless you go and delete that

um that person’s comment or that or

their or their or their criticism which

you have the option of doing but then

that can also cannonball and spiral into

a whole different

kind of worm which i would suggest not

going down that road

uh but when you so i said you know i’m

gonna try and i’m going to try and you

know

clear these misconceptions because their

comment if you choose to not delete it

remains there and others can be

influenced and others can also buy into

the lies they hate

so there were times when i really engage

with people you know late at night 11 30

12 at night you know hours after i

put out a video doing the lockdown and

i’d be saying now where where does anger

come from where does this

where is this frustration where do you

get these misconceptions from a lot of

them

would keep going on about different

things and these were totally baseless

they had they had not done their

research

about who i was who you know

my background my on this my authenticity

as a

as a journalist as a youtube content

creator

all all sorts of things and there are

times when you’re halfway through these

arguments and you wonder is it is it

really worth doing what am i going to

get out of this

but i stuck by my conviction that i i

wanted to a spread just spread positive

content

nothing negative nothing vile nothing

which brings another person down

and part of that part of the whole

process of putting out something which

you believe

people people should know about or

people want to know about based on their

feedbacks and suggestions

part of that is correcting the doubts

dispelling the

uh the skepticism the misconceptions you

know

and as uh as someone born and raised in

india but who does not look indian you

can imagine

how many misconceptions and misgivings

and

just different thoughts people have

about you so part of my whole process

to sort of veer into into youtube and

see where it goes

is because i got a lot of questions

about you know

who are you you know can you please tell

us more about yourself how you landed up

in india how you how you speak in the

what you do and of course being the

being the son of an actor like

tom walter can you please tell us more

about him

uh what it was like growing up in the

household same

as as your father did you go on movie

sets all sorts of these kind of

questions which are frankly very very

personal but i think very very relevant

questions

um it was it was a way to answer these

questions and like i said to clear

misconceptions about

myself my family my father uh through

through a wide medium like youtube

the process has been fantastic i’ve

learned a lot but when these negative

comments

comments come back how do you how do you

do you choose to reply to ignore them

and like i said i’ve

i’ve made i made a conscious effort to

to try and

address most of them and just going back

to the whole theme of this talk it’s

very very important to keep your

identity

in these increasingly polarizing and

shrinking times when

someone like me who’s a journalist who’s

in the media and who over the last

year and a half has also taken to acting

theater

web series movies the more you do this

you do

put yourself out there and while while

being on social media is a choice you

have you have

either be there you cannot be there um

it is a very good way to network

to you know to become popular so that’s

a choice which i made

years ago as a journalist specifically a

journalist in the digital field

i made that choice to go out there and

be on

on most of the popular social media

platforms fully aware that there would

be times when i would be

i would be frustrated and angry by what

people say and

you know 10 11 years later here i am you

know

still getting frustrated and angry about

what people said but

i firmly believe is my conviction that

you you need to not

uh bow down you need to not be affected

by these people

it’s easier said than done because like

i said earlier

in this in this talk there have been

times when even one comment can make you

sort of

sit back and look at your phone or your

laptop or your ipad or whatever device

you use and be like

really is is is that all that this

person um

this person who might be not it’s not

even his real name they’re hiding behind

a fake name or a fake display picture as

is what they’re saying is that gonna

gonna affect you

but you know um i i i sort of take it on

the chin and i said i’m gonna do this

because it’s very very important to

maintain your identity don’t let someone

don’t let a troll

or a coward or someone um

you don’t know don’t let what they say

get get get you down

and i have many many friends and

colleagues who do in fact get get

deeply affected by what happens and you

know and we talk about you know do you

reply do you block

many people just block them but you know

can can come back from a different

account because it takes literally it

takes a few minutes to make an account

and slap up a fake picture or a fake

name or whatever

um you don’t need to get into ip

addresses and all that stuff to

really you know it’s not worth it but so

so many

people are out there just you know with

their own views and especially here

here in india we’ve seen over the last

seven eight years how how things have

changed you know how having in a voice

which

does not agree with the establishment is

is is frowned on

and if you’re if you’re it can even get

you a lot of trouble

um again i don’t want to wear down that

that very

negative avenue right now but i just

want to start i want to stress on how

how i’ve i’ve taken i’ve taken this

route and um

i can i can give you some examples

without getting into the

into the nitty-gritty but you know um

one of the common

misconceptions i have is that uh i’m an

anglo-indian and i

tried to i’ve tried to clear this doubt

saying no you know not

what i am does not fit into the into the

term

anglo-indian because i am entirely our

lineage is entirely uh

american there is no there is no um

mixed race um element to to who

who the altar family is but yes that

said my my grandfather was born in india

my father was born in india i am born in

india my son

kaiden is born in india so yes we are

indian

by by by all aspects just not in

ethnicity

so in in uh in answering many comments

because people will comment saying sir

can you please stand up for our

anglo-indian community

you know your father did not do anything

for the anglo-indian community by

getting into politics you know

we’ve lost rights we’ve we’ve lost

certain seats

uh in the house of of uh

you know in the mp mp legislator and i

replied being like you know look i

understand where you’re coming from but

look i am not angle of indian and this

has then led to various

um there have been some high profile

politicians who then tagged me on

twitter saying you know please

please do something for the community so

in in in trying to

dispel such doubts uh you do get

comments about you know well why are you

here you

your family your family was we’re

guessing there were missionary families

who came to

who came to convert and you know all all

these sorts of things so you don’t you

don’t

you try not to even get down that line

you you stick to a point where you

you try to clear the doubts and try to

clear the misconceptions but you know

you don’t want to take on something

which then can spiral into something

else but it’s it’s in dealing my point

being it’s in dealing with

with questions and and criticism and

even negativity

of these swords where people have just

has chosen to paint you

pinch you with a brush you know by just

typing out a few words um

you can either get stuck in a hole or

you can try and say no i’m

i’m not gonna take this and there have

been times when i’ve been told why don’t

you just get off social media why do you

put yourself

out there on youtube but i stand by by

uh my beliefs that you know that mine is

a very interesting story and

the majority of the videos that i put

out on on youtube

um have been based on questions about

you know genuine interest

in what i do in what my family is

where my family is from what my father

did and

also just just to speak about my my

career as a journalist

it’s been now 15 and a half years that

i’ve been writing on cricket

predominantly but also i’ve covered a

range of sports and as you can imagine

when you write an article which which

takes

a different view or raises hard

questions you know the amount of

the amount of people who get back to you

i remember in 2013 the great sachin

tendulkar

um was was at the end of his

international career and

and i felt he had really prolonged that

career for too long

in the pursuit of that hundredth

international 100th

century and i felt that he was he was

blocking

uh the the path for younger players to

come in and this whole

and the nation the marketing you know

the whole the whole

media seemed to be you know just

consumed by sachin tendulkar’s

elusive hundred hundred which no one had

ever achieved and i

wrote a piece saying you know literally

and the title was um

for god’s sake such and just go and even

without reading the article and reading

my points

there were like hundreds and thousands

of just people commenting on twitter and

on the website you know which is good to

get

views for the website but which my boss

liked but i was like where is this

hatred coming from you know you don’t

know anything

go back go back to your country you

you’re britisher

and i want to say hang on i’m not even

british but you know that’s just one

example of the kind of misconceptions

people can

can take from something you’ve written

or something you said as

as a journalist in the media line

without understanding you know or even

without even reading what what what

you’ve actually gone to said

going on to say um so yeah while it’s

while it’s been utterly fascinating

utterly rewarding these past 15 and a

half years

as a journalist in the digital realm

working for some really really

amazing companies and making amazing

contacts and

having great colleagues and good friends

there is this side that you have to be

fully aware of when you choose to put

yourself out there

it is that people are not immediately

automatically going to

like what you say and how do you stick

to your guns how do you stick to your

convictions

how do you how do you how do you not

change your own ways you know you

perhaps could be tempted into changing

what you write

based on you know negative feedback but

no i i’ve chosen to keep my identity

i’ve chosen to not change uh the way i i

think the way i write and now as it

turns out

over the last year and a half the way i

go about my my digital content creation

um so yeah this is something which which

i believe

about and i think it fits it fits very

well into woodstock’s

tedx talk here and um so thank you

wilstock for giving me a chance to come

and

speak a bit about what i do and how and

how i cope with these

challenges on social media and being

a public figure so i hope you’ve enjoyed

today’s talk um come find me say hi

drop a comment negative positive

whatever and

i’ll be sure that i try and answer you

thank you for your time god bless