Unless your skin is incredibly thick, criticism hurts. Some actors and television stars even avoid the press the day after their show, just in case they have been criticized. There is something about being criticized, even if deep down you know that the critic is right, that he just goes right through you.

So how should you react when people criticize you?

Part of the answer depends on where the criticism took place.

It’s often easier to ignore it in real life than it is online, but both can be uncomfortable.

In real life, it is generally better to ignore the critic as much as possible.

That’s easy enough to do if you are in the habit of finding little holes wherever you look; In essence, you can say that it has nothing to do with you, it is simply what the other person does.

If, on the other hand, you have been found doing something silly, often the best solution is to raise your hands and admit that whatever they criticize you is a fair comment and that you were wrong. This has the advantage that it often solves the problem in question. Your honesty in admitting the problem trumps the person who criticized it.

Of course, if that happens too often, it can lead to a downward spiral where you end up making more mistakes and being criticized more often. A pattern that is best not to get into, but if you find yourself there, you should take steps to get out rather than dig deeper.

Today, online criticism is usually a bigger problem than face-to-face.

Cyberbullying happens at school; That’s another form of criticism and one that many school-age children have a hard time dealing with.

But criticism can take place almost anywhere you go online.

Blog comments, additions to your videos, Facebook, forums, etc. Anywhere people meet online.

And there’s something much more public about it, in part because it’s available for the world to see and, in your mind, the whole world. has viewed.

Dealing with criticism online is a much harder art to master.

There is a lot to be said simply by ignoring it.

The fewer comments there are, the faster the page in question will disappear from everyone’s radar and the faster it will disappear.

If you really have to answer, take the time to compose your words elsewhere: your word processor or even a piece of paper.

Then read them before posting them online. Ideally, you should read them out loud and, if possible, pass them on to someone you trust before hitting the “send” button.

Because on the Internet our words have a habit of haunting us again.

Just as you can’t retrieve an email or text message once it’s sent, it’s hard to stop posting a reply on the web. Before you know it, Google will have indexed it or someone will have Tweeted it.

So you can end up with an egg on your face, simply because you were trying to defend yourself from criticism.