During my time as an online journalist, there was only one real challenge. It wasn’t finding enough content to fill the site, or working to short deadlines. It wasn’t trying to find a new angle on a popular story, or seeking out Irish stories of interest to our readers. Instead, it was the readers themselves.
Not all of them, but one particular breed of reader. They should be an asset, as they read almost every article published, but instead they are the bane of your life. I'm talking about the "Yawn" brigade, and their compatriots, the "Is this news?" gang, and despite the fact that I no longer work on a website, they continue to plague me in comment sections and on Facebook posts almost every day.
These men, and yes, they are almost exclusively men, spend their time trawling the internet for articles to read, and then comment expressing their disinterest. "Aha!" they say, when they spot an article on lipstick. "I simply must let everyone know that I find this subject boring!" "Ooh!" they exclaim, upon discovering a piece about the growing hip hop scene in Ireland. "This doesn't fall into my narrow categorisation of what news is! The people must know!"
They lead a sad existence, not unlike those who listen to certain radio programmes every single day
Truly, it takes a very special breed of arrogance to believe that because something is not interesting to you, it could not be of interest to anyone else. It could be argued that these guys should be studied by anthropologists; perhaps then they would serve a purpose other than to antagonise people like me on the internet.
Really I should let it go. They lead a sad existence, not unlike those who listen to certain radio programmes every single day so that they can text in abuse to the presenter. And yet, I can’t. I can’t stop being irritated, and they can’t stop being irritants.
