If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say…
Then don’t say anything at all. (AKA, why weren’t we all taught this as children?)
I.e, knowing someone on the Internet doesn’t mean you know everything about them (or have the right to comment on it.)
Looking around, things on social media, in the news, and in general can seem pretty bleak. Another post complaining about something, spreading rumors about someone, or criticizing someone you may or may not even know IRL (because, let’s face it, following someone online does not make them your best-friend, or even close acquaintance, and you may not know a thing about them or their life on the inside.)
That said, all of these “negative” posts (and sensationalist newscasts on FOX or CNN or the like, and hack-job articles online, and and and…) make me think: “Was everyone not taught the golden rules as a kid?”
By the “golden rules” I mean those essential, human truths we’re taught from a very young age that attempt to guide us into socializing more positively and being better people in general. Those are, of course, the “golden rule” itself (“treat people the way you want to be treated”), and my personal favorite: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
Looking around the world today, it seems like we’ve forgotten this rule most of all. Of course its right and okay to criticize injustice and any and all forms of oppression, but our tendency to use the Internet and other forms of popular media to randomly cut down, criticize, gossip about, etc. one another is really vile, actually.
Hear me out— if you didn’t have a single nice thing to say to someone you don’t like (say, when you bump into them at the grocery store or at work), would you say anything at all? You’d likely try to be the “better person”, keep your mouth shut, and keep your composure. So, why do those rules go out the window on the Internet, on TV, or in other forms of popular media?
Whether it’s people and paparazzi assuming they know everything about a certain celebrity (and consequentially seeking to ruin their lives, a-la the 2007 media treatment of Britney Spears, which has recently come into the spotlight), or random individuals spreading rumors about, or generally criticizing someone they “follow” (but don’t actually know at all in the real world), this whole attitude of dehumanizing and devaluing one another when we aren’t face-to-face (or even when we are) is just… bizarre. I don’t get it.
If you live to criticize others online; if you’ve made a career out of it; if you enjoy watching radical weirdos foam at the mouth on FOX News… are you alright? Genuinely, are you okay? Maybe you need to step back, take a long look at yourself and your own life, and be reminded of this golden rule:
If you don’t have anything nice to say, just don’t say anything at all.
Xoxo, MM.