UNITED STATES—I wish we could rewind to 10-15 years ago. This is post the explosion of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and social media in general. I love the idea of social media because it just allows people to stay in touch with others. What I despise about social media is when people choose to announce a public feud with others.
Just this week the media outlets were in a frenzy once again reporting that presidential candidate Donald Trump decided to utilize Twitter to post a few personal attacks (depending on who you ask) about FOX News personality Megyn Kelly. I just think its downward silly and that is just sad.
I’m seeing this more and more in the media; where are news outlets reporting feuds that other people are having? I mean, is this something of newsworthiness that the public just has to know about? I mean, is there nothing else happening of bigger importance in the world? I just find it crazy that so many Americans are giddy about the dumbest things.
For starters, we live in a world where people will ALWAYS talk about you. It’s unfortunate, but it’s life. People have the right to their opinion and they utilize it to voice how they feel on a daily, or in most situations, an hourly basis. A lot of people personally want to see how someone else will respond to a personal attack. Things can be tricky for celebrities, as many people in the public hold them to higher standard. Unfortunately, I feel for celebs, a person is only going to allow so many personal attacks before you react.
Yeah, you can delete a tweet or post that might not be PC ready, but once it is released into the public sphere it’s already too late. Why? Well people take screen shots and snap shots of what people tweet or post to social media all the time. It’s almost like you have people waiting at the computer for something controversial to arise. Anything that opens the door to manifest a ‘story’ will be utilized in the media driven frenzy that we live in.
Could you imagine if people were actually forced to converse with people one-on-one instead of utilizing social media to stay in contact? Where would our world be today? An uproar! I am more disappointed that people are willing to ignite fuel to the fire by feuding with complete strangers on social media all the time. Ok, one tweet to respond to a comment is understandable, but going back and forth for hours on social media, that’s a bit much.
As much as I’d hate to say this, if you have a fear of hearing someone spew venom about you in the public sphere, stay off the internet. You have no clue what is being said about you if you’re not looking to find things about yourself. We already have an epidemic of bullying in America, which has moved from the playground to the internet. What example are adults setting for the younger generation when they are willing to go back and forth? The purpose of social media is to keep in touch with those that may be a distance from you, not to engage in silly feuds that have no purpose making public airwaves to begin with.
