Sometimes, I can’t help but wonder why it’s usually easier for people to just be mean and wicked to people online. Like, you could make an innocent post, and people will crawl out from different places to spew all forms of hate and bile on said posts. And if the post you made wasn’t innocent? Even worse! You’d wish the ground would open up and swallow you!
Why is it that people are more confident when they’re online? They feel secure typing on keypads and spewing all their false information. They rain down insults, cook up lies, and destroy reputations, all while hiding behind a fake username and profile picture. People can be so damn confident- online.
The thing is, we all know that, provided it’s all online, you can be traced. Using a VPN won’t save you, using a different name or a fake picture won’t protect your identity. If the authorities or someone else were motivated enough to track you down, they would easily do it, and hell, they could hunt you down to your very doorstep. People know all these, yet they still go online to say all sorts of things.
Is this a psychological thing? I think so. There are a lot of things that we do that we remove the element of humanity in them, it becomes harder to see the humans affected by our actions. Take social media, for example, technically, you don’t interact with the people on the other end. You interact with your phone, and they interact with their phones as well. So, when you say something hurtful, you don’t see their reaction. All you get are the responses they give you after they’ve recovered from that reaction.
And I believe this has reduced humans to just accounts that make up the social media space. Because there are some things you will never say if you’re directly in front of a person, but people will easily say them online, knowing that the person can find out. Because even though they know of the possible consequences, they just don’t care. And that’s what’s really sick about all this.
It’s the same problem we have with our governments. They don’t see us as humans anymore, we’re simply voters, numbers, and part of a statistic. Many of the people in power today are not active on social media, they have people who man their accounts. Leaders of the world are not involved in the daily running of things, all they have are statistics, articles, and dossiers on the state of their respective nations. Everyone in the country is reduced to numbers and figures, which is why they’re able to do a lot of the things they choose to do.
The people who are affected the most by the policies of the government will never be able to get a one-on-one with the government officials who made those policies. The people who suffer from a terrible healthcare system, bad roads, insecurity, and all that, will never be able to meet the Ministers and Senators responsible for providing these things. And these Ministers and Senators will never really use the healthcare system because they’re quick to go abroad for medical trips, they have armed security with them at all times, and they have powerful vehicles that can maneuver any road, no matter how bad it is.
And that is the hole we’ve dug for ourselves. The people we choose to fight for us and make decisions on our behalf have no idea what we’re going through. All they get are numbers and words on paper. They see slideshows and projections, and they get estimations and approximations. And they make life-altering decisions based on that. I’m not even going to talk about the corruption aspect.
So, what am I saying? Society has now evolved to the point where people have become really distant from each other. They don’t even see others as humans, just for whatever they need them to be. They’re voters, followers, viewers, readers, likers, reactors, users, downloaders, subscribers, payers, members… and the list goes on. They are all these things and more, except humans! And that explains so much. Because as long as I don’t know you personally, and you’re not in my immediate environment, I can do whatever the hell I want. And you’ll just have to accept it.
But that’s incorrect. Because we’re all humans, and we’re all beginning to say that enough is enough. We’re more than just numbers and figures. We’re names, identities, culture, faith, and so many things. And it’s time that we bring humanity back to society. If not, we’ll burn it all to the ground. And for what? Greed!
Oh, help us, God.
