My Life Online Workshop – Be Kind Online

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will ‘always’ hurt me. What if we lived in a world where online haters and trolls magically turned into your own motivational guru? This simple 2-question test makes that world possible.

Transcript:

You are sick. Get help. You’re retarded. Then Keairra says, “O.M.G.” At which point, Emma goes, “Don’t you ever brush your teeth? I bet the camera is dying of your breath and oh my god I can’t say more. There’s so much more things about you like your ugliness.” Then Zoe says, “Okay, please don’t post videos. Please.”

Now just pay attention to how this room feels right now. Behind that screen, is a real human being with emotions, with feelings, with hopes, goals and dreams. There’s this huge thing that will either hurt your chances or help your chances of making it all happen. We’re talking about your life online.

Let’s say that someone in this very room wants to be in the NHL, because I’m a coach. In this day and age, you can hop on Google, look up your name and you happened to be someone named Zoran. And I see that Zoran once upon a time put a comment underneath a video that said, “Child, you are sick. Get help! You’re retarded.” Do you think that in this moment, for me, someone who can give you an opportunity to do something you want in life, I would keep him or cut him? The fact that I would probably cut this dude before he’s even been told he’s on the team, is exactly why you have an incredible opportunity.

Because if you want to hurt yourself and others, hey, online, great place to do it. So this is an example of someone who might have never even known they were going to get the best opportunity possible to achieve their goals, to maybe get that dream job, to go all the places they want to go. They might never know they lost that opportunity over a simple comment. We don’t say this to scare you. We say this to excite you. We say this to get you motivated and inspired and empowered to approach your life online in a way that actually relates to all the things you say you want to achieve in life.

Here we go. I’ve got a post ready to go. I get to ask myself a couple questions. What’s the first question? Is it…

True.

And if it’s not true, what do I do?

Don’t post it.

But if it is true, what do I do?

And the second question is it…

Kind.

Is it…

Kind.

And if it’s not kind, what do I do?

Don’t post it.

We’re not dealing with cell phones. We’re not dealing with Ipads. We’re not dealing with someone on the screen. We’re dealing with an actual human being.

This program belongs in every, single classroom that’s out there.

Your life online can help become a veterinarian. Help learn a language. Help meet amazing people. What do you want to say to the world? Live your life online, in a way that helps you get all of those things that you say you want in life. So the question becomes, who do you want to be?