The Haters, Man

Disclaimer: I like Eminem's music too.

People (especially YouTubers) usually have some sort of thing pertaining to their "haters," whether it's a whole vlog about the topic or just a little bit at the end where they proclaim their lack of care regarding them, or something like that. Rappers are also major contributors to this phenomenon; Eminem in particular usually fits a verse in about his various haters and how he's overcome them, or outperformed them, or how they're jealous, and so on ad infinitum.

The policy of "[ignore] hate(rs)" (edited for strong verbiage) is a pretty good one, in my opinion. There are indeed people in the world who will tell you all types of horrible things, simply out of shallow anger or jealousy. YouTube's comment section is full of people who don't understand the notion that, if something isn't to their taste, they can simply click away to something else, and so decide to vent their frustration with poorly-worded and undirected bile.

It bears keeping in mind, however, that those folks represent a very, very slim minority of people as a whole. It's an overwhelmingly loud minority, of course, but a small section of seats nonetheless. Most people, assuming they spectate what you're doing at all, are given to quiet observation or polite applause. The guy at the nightclub who heckles the performers is, after all, just one guy out of the whole audience. The point is that, if you're a person who presents content of any sort to the public, there is a fair chance that you can simply ignore the bile-spewers because they're not very numerous, despite their volume.

Now, knowing that the vast majority people aren't "haters," what does that mean for the people who leave non-garbled, directed negative feedback? It's very possible to criticize things (or people) you genuinely like, because you care about the subject and want to give pathways for it to grow and improve.

Say you run a YouTube channel and have a standard introduction and title screen for your videos. Panning through the comments, about one in every twenty says something really eloquent like "fake n gay" or "ur vids suk." Those you can write off; these are either people attempting to get a reaction out of someone else or are genuinely in elementary school. But what about the five or six or ten others in the twenty who say "Man, the high-pitched whine in the beginning is really killing me" or "The intro's cool, but the volume's balanced waaaaay too high for people with headphones" and things like that?

These are not haters. These, my friends, are critics! Everybody has them, nobody likes them, and they are absolutely your best friends as someone who makes content. When a criticism recurs throughout your feedback over and over, it's actually extremely valuable. These people are the ones vocal enough to raise what's on everyone's mind and give you a 100% direct link to the minds of your audience, eliminating the guesswork as to what works and what doesn't. None of us are perfect, because that would be properly boring. These people keep us aware of that fact and let us know when we can improve.

Now, for those of us (like me) who are playa-hatin' like it's our job. Always remember two things: first, if you don't like something you can usually just not consume it. Don't like One Direction? Don't listen to them. Can't stand dark chocolate? Don't eat it, homie. Secondly, keep in mind that there really is no such thing as bad publicity. If you get caught up bashing something you don't like, you're effectively still doing it a service by giving it your attention. Lady Gaga (classy) and Miley Cyrus (less classy) are perfect examples; each thrives off of people's hatred for her, and intentionally does things people will object to in order to keep herself relevant. The actual way they do it is different in some ways, but the point stands.

TL;DR You may not have haters, but you might have critics.