Outrage Culture: do we get high off the madness?
Sometimes it seems like the internet is a virtual court and everyday someone new gets put on trial. The cases are usually short as they never seem to go over the one-week timeline that has been subconsciously decided by society. After that week it’s on to the next, the next person to be hanged.
To be clear, the outrage is usually justified. Oh hell, it’s justified! It’s a great thing that we are becoming a society that calls out injustices, discrimination and bigotry. It’s evidence that we learnt a few things from history and are at least trying to make sure they don’t happen ever again. Thank God for that!
Without social media, none of it would be possible. It has made us more united than ever and more divided than ever.
With just one click you can find other people with similar views as yours and with just another, you can get instantly connected, meet and walk through life on the same page. This is why I believe it divides us more than ever. We aren’t necessarily inclined to look out for things we don’t appreciate or listen to people we don’t agree with. It’s a kind of voluntary exclusion and it seems like it’s going nowhere anytime soon.
With our keyboard courage, it’s never been easier to write or say the most outrageous things. I mean, people already did ages ago, so why wouldn’t it happen when whatever you think can just be typed into a box without the face to face, eye to eye contact of those in question or those affected by your thoughts? Would we have to balls to say certain things while looking into someone’s eyes and receiving their immediate reaction. I guess it’s a blessing and a curse in that way.
It’s easy. Most times it’s easier than easy and all it takes a lot of the time is for one to write a two-word sentence that could ruin their reputation. We all have phones, we all have the internet, we all have social media and there you have it: we all have the key to auto-destruction in the palm of our hands.
One tweet can now make a person an individual headed towards billions in their bank account or towards bankruptcy. Yes, isn’t it scary that all it could take is one freaking tweet, only one and you could be at the top of your game or up in smoke… and you know what they say about smoke.
This is usually the reason behind our daily outrage: the quick fingers that couldn’t take just one more minute to reconsider that statement or tweet.
Once it’s out there, there no go back! There’s no pretending it didn’t happen or claiming it was accidental. There’s only admission and apology or owning the words as your true belief and dealing with the aftermath as it comes.
We, the rest of the world, we’ll come for you with our quick fingers too and we will eat you alive.
In the online world, there is no such thing as mercy or forgiveness. It doesn’t matter if the outrage is about something that happened fifteen years ago or that same early morning. It’s more about you should have known and if you didn’t oh well. Sad.
Like I said, a lot of our outrage is definitely needed and rightfully deserved. People need to be called out on their bull and the internet has successfully made some things certainly unacceptable and inexcusable.
I believe that because of the world wide web, we are all becoming more “polite”, considerate and careful beings, maybe a bit too much and maybe in the long run this might do more harm than good. I feel like it’s not that we’re getting less people that have scary views on the world, we are just getting more silent people that have scary views on the world. They just sweep it under the carpet and in turn we feel like they are no more around us, like they can’t touch us anymore… until they do.
That type of society might even be a worse version of the one we live in now.
Today, we’re mad at him. Tomorrow we’re mad at her.
We type out how those words were awful and how those actions were despicable. We type it out for the world to see, we make sure the world sees it and then the whole world jumps on the bandwagon.
Is it really about invoking change though? Or is it just about our desire to feel better about ourselves?
If I condemn those words, if I speak out against that advert, that means something, right? That means I could never say something along those lines. I could have never. I’m better. I’m a saint in comparison. Trust me. Really.
These may or may not be the direct thoughts that go through our heads during our clap backs and call outs, but these are sometimes the implied messaging. A lot of times, I feel as though, it’s not about educating someone on why they are wrong about something, but it’s about feeling superior, better and some may say “woke”.
We all do it. We all hold pitch fork and light fires waiting for the next person to be tried, but can you really? Can you really claim to be squeaky clean – to be better? What would be found if we looked back at
I don’t want us to stop calling out discrimination and ignorance just because we may not be saints after all. My desire is for us as a society to keep it in mind when we become the jury on someone else’s case. It should be about change and education and moving forward as a society.
Remember the reason you are not in their place is only that you may have been smart enough to not get caught on camera or leave a trail… yet.
Your restless romantic roamer
