How do you respond to “mean” or seemingly insulting comments that you receive on your blog or social media? Sometimes I’m not even sure if a reply is meant to be insulting, so I try to give the person posting it the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes there is no doubt. Here are a few specific comments I remember getting over the years:

About my art:

“Go back to playing with your crayons.”

“How is that even art?”

About my writing/poetry:

“Every human being has something valuable to share. However, not every human being was meant to do so through poetic means.”

“Cliched and unconvincing. Boring.”

About me personally:

Various accusations of being immature/childish, overly sensitive, “stupid”, ugly, unattractive, etc.

The problem is that I never really know how to respond to these kind of comments. Should I ignore them? Delete the comment? Block the person? Write a snappy comeback? Try to reason with them? At different times I’ve tried all these tactics, and I’m still not sure what the best course really is. What has worked best for you?