Mike Sharman had me laughing this morning when he said "Can we just change the name of social media to 'petty' or 'jump-on-the-bandwagon' media." Well yes Mike, we could.
This week has been insane. The models, the racist stuff... Sponsors dropping out, students being suspended from UCT for using the words "Black People" on a Facebook status. People being arrested as their videos (exposing criminal activity) go viral. Did you hear of that guy that got arrested because of a picture of his child on Facebook? They were packing and moving house or something. He stuck a piece of packaging tape over his toddler's mouth and took a picture and was all "Don't mess with daddy" or something. Apparently that's child abuse. I don't know. Then there's all that nonsense that happened between Woolies and Frankie's and that stuff is just everywhere.
Social Media is not only making brands very vulnerable, but individuals too. Famous or not. I once had another mommy blogger mail one of my sponsors to say they should not sponsor me. Jealousy? Hatred? I don't know. Maybe it was because she was fired from her job for having a potty mouth on Twitter. That one happens too (especially if you work for a parenting magazine people).
You don't always know who reads your blog, and sometimes blogging makes you vulnerable and opens the door to seriously nasty and weird people. No wait, just that one. The rest of my readers are wonderful and I consider them good friends.
Then I saw another guy tweet that he was checking out a potential intern (for the company) on Facebook. That would totally freak me out. Although, I would probably want to do the same thing if I was hiring. See if my candidate doesn't worship dead things on weekends and such. Hey, you never know and nobody likes a dead thing at the office.
Twitter is the worst because it makes you that little bit more anonymous. People seem to slate each other so easily there. I mean, you would never walk in to say, a Spar and say "Hey, your food is awful, I want the manager" but you'll say it on Twitter. Directly to them, for your 2000 followers to see, without giving them an opportunity to respond. You'll include that you think you got food poisoning from there too. You'll keep going on about it all day. Well no not everyone, but some.
So I don't follow them. I don't follow certain people the way a vegetarian doesn't follow Mc Donalds.
You also get those people that post, check-in and announce every single thing that they are doing every day, all the time. You also get the really annoying ones (like me) that post pictures of everything they eat. With Instagram. Nothing says good food better than a sepia grade people. You get the facebook couples that tell each other how much they love each other in your timeline all day, but you know... That one has always been around. I used to write "N 4 R" all over school desks and such. Engraved in to trees. You know. Usual PDA stuff. I get it. I've been there.
I don't know. I guess we all do stupid things online at some point. I guess we're all a little bit vulnerable. We all irritate each other in some way. Maybe you don't like Farmville or that seventeen of your friends have been hacked and are asking you to claim a free iPad. Maybe someone sends you a message and cc's seven million people and you get each response. Twenty times a day. Maybe your friends ask you to vote for them (I don't mind this one) every day for ten months for a competition that will just not end. We all have something that annoys us. We're all affected by social media in some way.
But you know, if that girl loses so much for saying the "K" word, then what about some seriously crude things I've heard guys say online? Sexual harassment, hate speech... I could get feminists involved in some of it. Ask Durex. They'll tell you all about it. But if one person gets attacked for a misjudged moment, and you can show a thousand other people that have said the same thing, then I reckon you should have a case of discrimination or something. You know?
It's not cool to be a douche. It's not cool to do it online, but man alive: We all say and do stupid things at some point. As long as we're not hurting anyone I say let people make mistakes. If you get offended by someone else's opinion, or way that they live their lives then I don't know. Maybe focus on yourself more. I'd be all like "Oh look, she said the K word on twitter. What an idiot" and then promptly move on with my life.
Like that picture of the mother breast feeding her three year old. So what? Who cares? Attachment parenting, helicopter parenting, I don't even know the rest of the names they call the different styles. It's all a lot of silliness really. Love your kids, but not too much, but let them know that you're not loving them too much on purpose, otherwise they'll get insecure. A load of nonsense all of it. Breastfeed your kid until he's seven, bath your kids in food coloring for all I care. I am raising MY sons to be well rounded adults so that one day they have good characters and are able to deal with all sorts of different situations and people as grown ups. You know, even the dudes that were bathed in food coloring.
Everyone should really just calm the freak down. You're 'just' a person. It's 'just' social media. Much bigger things happening all the time. Get some perspective on your own life, and leave everyone else's alone I say.