AntiSocial Media

 

The advent of the internet caused an actual paradigm shift, not a pretend one made up by marketing fucktards. A real one.  Its effects have transformed a large swathe of modern life, most notably media and communications. Some of the avenues the internet has opened up have been undeniably helpful and brilliant but, unfortunately, some of those avenues have been altogether poisonous.

Take social media as an example. On the face of it, it seems like a brilliant idea, a great way to find old mates, stay in touch with people you’re not geographically close to anymore; to highlight causes and spread a bit of love. Nice.  In practise however, it has opened the floodgates to the widespread dissemination of nonsense as fact and a barrage of spit-drenched hatemongers spewing forth ill-formed wisdom like a super-sewer spraying gallons and gallons of velvety shit straight into your mind.  Yes, everyone’s got an opinion but most people should really keep theirs to themselves.

People have always loved to bitch and moan, it’s fairly natural and in a ‘real life’ situation there are the checks and balances of society to temper and govern that behaviour. But now, with multifarious social platforms to broadcast whatever strange notions float through their brains, everyone is under the impression that it’s not only their right, it’s also their duty to maliciously destroy everything. A strange and worryingly widespread sociopathic streak has been laid bare. No one can go on the internet and post anything at all on their facebook, twitter, YouTube, tumblr or whatever other personal outlets they may have without a barrage of bile raining down, from the mildly disagreeable ‘is that the best you can do?’, ‘what a load of rubbish’ and ‘really?’ to the outright hostile ‘I’d fackin kill im’ ‘stupid bitch, still fuck her tho’ and the almost ubiquitous ‘cunt’.  The media aren’t even exempt as the comments section of the Daily Mail and CIF on the Guardian’s site ably demonstrate.

All the hate would be bad enough on its own but there also exists the sunshine brigade whose opinions are equally as trite and uncalled for with their relentless positivity and cloying ‘it’s ok they’re doing their best’ spiel. Social media has rendered the whole of the internet utterly unappealing. The public are idiots. We all know this, it’s innate knowledge but the relative anonymity that the internet affords the casual hate-filled commentator seems to have given a huge green light for the vast majority of people to become callously obnoxious and cruel.  And, like an Ouroboros, here I am bitching and moaning on the internet about bitching and moaning on the internet. Am I part of the problem, almost certainly but, it’s my right and duty to tell you you’re a cunt.