Social media has been awash with interesting comments since the political assignation of Kevin last week. It has been said 1000 times in the last seven days, but politics is a blood sport and what’s made it even bloodier is the part social media has played.
Ranga, ginger ninjas, carrot tops, Ronald McDonald look alike and my personal favourite fanta pants are all names recently used to describe our new PM. Love her or hate her and I’m no fan, but the name calling online within seconds of her rise to power was interesting, unAustralian or was it Australian? Did we honestly have nothing more intelligent to say?
Rangas take over the world, kick a ninja day and equal rights for rangas groups have cropped up online in a matter of minutes.
As if Kevin didn’t have enough to worry about, even his Facebook and twitter friends turned on him. For every outpour of sympathy online, were three more slaggings like “ F**k you Milkybar kid”.
In any uncanny twist of events, it was Kevin’s clever use of social media that saw him align with the younger generation and now it will be that very social media that will be a constant reminder to him of his failures. I didn’t vote for the guy, but I actually sent him a nice twitter just to make him feel slightly better after the barrage of abuse he was receiving.
Are there any manners on social media, or is it just politics that brings out the worst in people?
It is a forum to voice your opinion and thoughts, but should there be a censor on your thoughts out of common decency?
We certainly don’t walk around telling people exactly what we think of them all day, or we would be accused of having Tourette’s, but having Tourette’s online seems completely acceptable. I’m certainly not suggesting we adopt China’s view of online and social media censoring, but I can’t help but think that plain old fashioned manners wouldn’t go astray.
