How Buzzfeed Taught Me To Be A Better Person

I read a post shared by a friend, from a friend, who knows this friend -- and it was written by Matt Stopera, staff of BuzzFeed. 

Yep, that's BuzzFeed, my daily source of viral entertainment. I can't believe how this writer -- with his seemingly irrelevant post, made it viral not only in the US but in China as well. He dominated Weibo with a series of posts chronicling the search for a guy who apparently has his stolen phone. The guy, who is now known as Bro Orange, unknowingly linked his pictures to the signed in iCloud account of Matt. 

As part of my statement, that Matt Stopera is my new life guru, I told myself..hey I should start writing again! I think I'd start with Buzzfeed. 

So I browsed job openings, edited my CV and updated it and created an account in BuzzFeed.

I never knew anybody can post in BuzzFeed?! They even offered tips on how to write viral stories and what kind of stories to write. 

And there it hit me... While I was reading the community guidelines... I realized I was "that guy."

Read the guidelines here to know more about the guy.

In short, the guy is a hater, a troll or someone who feeds the troll. He posts personal attacks, or spam or porn and he plagiarizes! (not me on the last three characteristics of the guy).

My thoughts were purely evil. I am a hater (but definitely not when I watch cute puppy videos or tear jerking proposal videos). I am guilty too on commenting and bashing (but not extreme to wish another person to "go die" or "go fuck yourself."

Now, my dreams of writing for BuzzFeed is shattered. I think I need to go to a series of retreats and soul searching so I can undo becoming the guy. Or maybe I just need to loosen up a bit, write about irrelevant stuff and subtly inject important points (like for Matt's article: its how technology bridges language and cultural gaps). Or maybe I should watch more Corgi videos.. 

As BuzzFeed puts it..

Now, this post is my first attempt to write something fun, creative and interesting. I hope to write more of these kind of posts...who knows I might author the next viral post from BuzzFeed... or if not, at least I became a better person by writing positive posts only!