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