Yesterday I was cruising the technical forums, trying to diagnose a problem with my new phone. Inevitably I ran into an exchange between two posters that got a little heated. So, here it is 24 hours later, and I’m still thinking about that exchange and how between-the-lines snarky it was. Since “0 of 11 people found this post helpful,” it obviously had a similar effect on others. Negative writing can bring you down. I am sure when they were focused on each other, those writers had no idea the effect their writing would have on others.

Buddhists believe that our actions, and even our thoughts, have effects that spread far outward, like ripples in a pond. Certainly this much is true of writing, and not just of your written comments on forums and articles on the Internet. (I have no idea how many people may read this post, but Google Analytics suggests it’s a lot more than I want to contemplate.) (more…)