Where is the love?

I feel like we are in the middle of a pandemic. Yes, that's right, we are witnessing the outbreak of some new deadly illness that seems to have caused people to forget about basic human courtesy and the fact that, actually, being funny does not consist of insulting another person or group of people, just for the 'lols'. I say deadly because it can be; almost half of suicide among teens are related to bullying (source).

I just keep thinking though, were did all this come from? When did it suddenly become ok to send a hurtful tweet, or a nasty Facebook or Youtube message. Is it the anonymity that makes it seem less threatening or less real? Or are we all inwardly like this and this side of us was bound to come out eventually...? With phrases such as 'trolling' and 'keyboard warriors' being thrown around, it's almost been turned into a game now. Who can 'troll' the hardest, who can think of the biggest insult to make readers sit back and go 'ooooohhhhhhhhhh!' Is this a very severe escalation of the 'yo mama' jokes of the 90's that have now come back to haunt us? I have so many questions.

As The Black Eyed Peas would say, 'Yo. Whatever happened to the values of humanity? Whatever happened to the fairness in equality?  Instead of spreading love we're spreading animosity'  Yes, I just quoted The Black Eyed Peas... But it seems appropriate, if not somewhat dramatic at the same time. Seriously though, what happened?!

It's so easy to spread hate around isn't it? I feel like we've become so used to dissing celebrities (which is still wrong in itself) that we think it's ok to do the same to someone in your school, work, online. Yeah, I think that's part of what it is. Do you have any other theories? Places like Twitter, and being connected to the world, don't help either. I can send a tweet to someone I don't even know, it's so easy. And if you are a nice person 'in real life' then being anonymous on twitter may make you think you can take on a different persona and be an idiot. Ah of course, these are the keyboard warriors. Like I said, it's so easy to spread hate, but I think that spreading a bit of love, or just kind-heartedness, is the real challenge. Not how many retweets you can get. 'But it's my opinion!' I hear you cry. Stop right there. There is a difference between opinion, which we have every right to, and being just down right nasty and disrespectful.

Please note that I'm not writing this saying I'm guilt free of a tweet or two myself, usually explaining my strong dislike for Nicki Minaj... because I'm not. I just think it's something we need to be very careful about. And make sure that 1. we do not cross the line (you know the line...) and 2. we make a bit more effort to spread some love and just be, you know, nicer.