Just recently I read a great article on a blog I follow called “Twitter: a sugar-hyped toddler in need of a good lie down”. It was very thought provoking and really did remind me of school, where it seems that often if you don’t agree with the most recent social media outrage you can cop a bit of a flogging and it is not pleasant. Basically you are left with the choice of going with the flow, or just turning it off and keeping your opinion to yourself (if it is not in line with the trend) and give it a big swerve. At least though, if you choose to participate and disagree, that actually is your right to do so. Some of course will take it too far and you do end up with that schoolyard gang up mentality as ‘Dragon0ista’ so clearly addresses in her article I hyperlinked above.
This morning though I found basically the opposite of the above situation. Reading all my morning news I came across a heart-wrenching article “Systemic abuse was not confined to the Catholics” on the punch. It was a very personal account of abuse written by Richard "Tommy" Campion and for anyone who has had no idea as to what Institutional abuse is and how it can have a life-long effect, it could only elicit better understand and empathy. Or so I would have thought...
Many of the comments below the article were either supportive, or thanking the author, or adding to the debate with their experiences or thoughts. Sadly, the first comment was actually having a ‘go’ at the Gillard Government? Seriously? A thoughtful, well written article gets some troll having a dig at Julia Gillard? Worse, as you read down the article there were even more like that. Obviously staying on-topic is not something some people can do. They are so insulated in their own narrow little opinion that they cannot appreciate nor have any empathy for anyone? I would hate to see what some of these people are like with their loved ones? I can just see it now:
Child: Daddy Daddy I scraped my knee
Murph: Sorry love, no bandaids, bloody Gillard with her shocking Carbon Tax means your mum could not afford to buy any.
Or totally totally off-topic asproella...
Child: Daddy Daddy I scraped my knee
asproella: Shut up son, I am trying to listen to the TV and find out where Gillard set up that AWU slush fund!
There were more... No addition to the conversation at all, just tossing in a totally unrelated nasty political comment. One comment basically told the author that he was lucky that because of Mr Abbott, the Anglicans would also be looked into? Really? That is necessary? Trolls are now famous on the internet, but people like this, that cannot even contribute to a debate are worse then Trolls, they are tools! These people are allowed to vote? The reactions of these tools are just disrespectful to the likes of Mr Campion who bared his soul to give many others a better understanding of abuse.
Obviously the regular commenter’s on the punch know these people to be the trolls they are and ignore them, though maybe sometimes it would be nice to see the “sugar-hyped toddlers” use their power for ‘good’ and actually put these uncaring, single-minded, single-issued Tools back in the box!
