One of the biggest concerns I have had during recent media coverage of social media events has been the highlighting of just how much anger there is out there. The backlash via Twitter to Olympians who did not perform to the standards expected by some of the population; the horrible Twitter messages to the lovely Chrissie Swan condemning how she raises her children; the ghastly messages sent to Charlotte Dawson on Twitter; the complex issue of people harrassing an innocent man with the same name as the alleged killer of Jill Meagher via Facebook; the all too usual rubbish out of Alan Jones' mouth, recorded on a phone and then sent out via social media to the public - all of this leaves me gibsmacked and quite unsettled. Not just because I fear that the rate of social media development is accelarating faster than we can emotionally, mentally, ethically and legally cope with it - yes, there is that fear - but more so the fear that there is just so much vitriol out there in the general public. Why are these people so angry??? They live in a country with freedom of speech, a generally reliable democracy, free access to a great health and education system, fresh food and water...
I could go on. And not only am I baffled as to why they are so angry... but where are they getting the spare time to be angry? I can barely maintain ten servings of fruit and veg a day, 30 minutes of exercise, quality time with family and friends, interest in my job, and clean clothes to wear for the week - let alone time to get out my phone, raise my blood pressure to a sufficiently white hot level of anger, and let forth a load of nasty commentary on someone who I have never met, has no impact on my life, and who will never meet me or care who I am. These faceless people must really be getting something positive out of spewing such negative karma onto people who have done nothing at all to provoke such anger...otherwise I can't imagine why they would waste all that emotional energy.
All I can say is that obviously, I am a child of hippie parents - because I can't help but think, live and let live. Sending out so much bad karma can only come back to haunt you.
And additionally, beware the force of social media - as Alan Jones has found out, there's no such thing as speaking 'off the record' anymore...
