Eddie Hall has revealed how he deals with abuse on social media, admitting he now feels more sympathy than anger towards the people who target him online.
Being one of the biggest personalities to emerge from Strongman has put Hall in front of a huge audience, and with that attention inevitably comes criticism.
But the former World’s Strongest Man has developed a very different way of looking at the people who take time out of their day to send him hateful messages.
Speaking to Rob Moore, Hall explained that he believes much of the negativity people direct towards others online can be a reflection of how they feel about themselves.
“I always think the people that are the most negative and the most hateful and the most spiteful are usually the people that really hate their own lives,” Hall said.
Rather than allowing those comments to get under his skin, Hall said he has learned to view them from a different perspective.
“I actually feel sorry for people that are like that,” Hall said.
“I don’t hate people that hate me. I actually feel sorry for them because I think, ‘F***ing hell, what a horrible life you must live to be that negative and hateful towards someone else,’” he said.
Hall’s attitude towards criticism is particularly interesting given how much of his career has been played out publicly.
During the same interview, he admitted that the personality viewers see on television or social media doesn’t necessarily represent the person behind it.
Hall explained that “The Beast” became a character he could lean into, particularly when appearing on television.
“I was quite cocky. I was quite arrogant. I would say things that were a bit outlandish, but I did it for TV,” Hall said.
“That’s what people wanted to see. People don’t want to see some boring guy going, ‘Yeah, I’m going to try my best and hopefully I win.’ They want someone to go, ‘I’m going to f****** destroy everyone,’” he said.
That public persona inevitably means not everybody will like him, but Hall’s comments suggest he no longer sees winning over every critic as particularly important.
His relationship with negativity also stretches back much further than social media.
Hall spoke openly during the interview about being treated as an outsider during his school years, eventually being expelled after what he estimated were “probably a hundred” suspensions.
His life subsequently took an extraordinary direction, with the gym eventually becoming the starting point for a journey that culminated in him becoming World’s Strongest Man.
And having experienced criticism both before and after becoming successful, Hall appears to have reached a simple conclusion about online hate.
Instead of firing back at strangers who attack him, he would rather consider what might be happening in their own lives for them to want to direct that level of negativity towards somebody they’ve never met.
Featured image credit: Rob Moore / YouTube
