Who’s Driving Our Social Media Rage?
Walking is not only good for the body physically but mentally very stimulating. We can get lost in our thoughts and relax away from the noise of normal daily life. Whether it is a lovely warm summer day or a crispy cold winter, it is great to walk to work and enjoy a bit of quiet and peace before getting wrapped up in this busy lifestyle of ours.
However, the number of people we now have to dodge, due to their heads buried down looking at their mobile, increases every day. Similar to a driver with only one thing on their mind and not looking to see whether the traffic light is red, or someone is in their way. Their mind is elsewhere, or even worse, paying too much attention to their mobile phone.
We live in a time where a lot of people have no time for a bit of silence in their lives. Work life and social media have become 24/7 and it seems people cannot stand even a few minutes without the need to catch up with social media whether it be WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, etc. The list goes on. It is a constant necessity like a ventriloquist desperately requiring their dummy to interact with them every few seconds.
Twitter is a prime example of this. It allows us to send instant comments to others including celebrities about our feelings and thoughts on matters we feel passionate about. However good that may be, it is becoming a haven for nasty vindictive comments. Just because we may not like what is occurring or said by a person, we feel we can explode into a tirade of abuse without any concern about the consequences of our comments. We are all emotional people especially about the things that concern us most and we can all get angry at times. Twitter has now become the tool for people to take their anger out on anyone with whom they disagree. There is no filter, so it simply allows us to write whatever we want. The person on the receiving does not know who we are so we are invisible to them and can hide behind our spiteful comments. There are certainly a nasty lot of people in the world but perhaps a proportion of these people making hurtful comments are reasonable and decent human beings but because they know they can’t be seen then they think it is ok to vent our anger. Before the invention of social media, we could use our brain as a filter to calm down and think how best to put our point across. Social media allows us to bypass the brain and go straight into angry mode without any thought as to what we are writing. It is a drug stirring up hatred. It may make us feel better to have a rant at a person, but we have just sparked even more anger and in turn, stirred other likewise people to rant back. The more comments you see on Twitter the more you see a mass of malicious comments and conversations.
The world is getting angrier with each other and social media is fuelling and encouraging more hatred every day.
Are these Twitter rage people the same people constantly running red lights and driving recklessly because they have too much on the mind? Again, a lot of these people are probably normal decent citizens but as soon as they step inside their car they turn into a different person and act like a completely mad lunatic. Everyone else out there on the road is in their way and there to be berated if they dare to disrupt our busy schedule.
Is it time for us all to try and calm down and use our brains before we either step inside the car or log on to social media? Let’s appreciate that everyone is entitled to a different opinion or may not drive as fast as we want them to. If possible, put that mobile away, leave the car, and take a walk.
