The other day I made a joke about a dead person on *popular social networking site Twitter. This joke cost me a number of followers, with one of them even calling me a rude word in response to my actions. I was a bit taken aback. Not only was my joke absolutely hilarious (it should have gained me followers if anything) but it also wasn't nearly as offensive as the first three drafts I'd typed out before deleting them out of some sort of subconscious morality. Nor was it as offensive as a lot of the other stuff I do actually tweet, yet none of that had ever earned this sort of hate.
So why is it people got so annoyed? Let's all pretend we're Jason bloody Manford (yes, he wrote a nice blog post. Yes, he also asked for naked pictures from girls on the internet while he was married and had those kids he loves so much. Prick.) and act like we understand the psychology of humans. Come on, it will be fun.
People like to pretend to other people that they give a shit.
It's always nice to have the moral high ground. If someone does something a bit wrong it feels fantastic if you're the person who jumps in and says 'No! This cannot be!' However, it only feels fantastic if you do that when there's a crowd of people to show off about it to. If someone did something a bit wrong (for example, made a joke about a dead person) in a one on one situation you doubtless would not care less. Social media gives you a big horn blowing platform for you to act all morally superior on which makes you feel a lot more special.
People like to pretend they have a personality.
A lot of people don't really have anything to offer the world in terms of a personality. I know some of these people and I pretend to like them because I am otherwise short of friends. These people don't often have an opportunity to convince everyone else that they're worth noticing, so when such a chance presents itself they jump on it. They've been boring and mundane for most of their lives, but this one moment of acting like they're better than someone else makes all of that alright. They will attract other do-gooders to their side and they can pretend they're the Avengers.
It's easier to be predictable.
When something terrible happens, and I am totally on the side of murder being terrible, it takes no effort at all to say, 'Aw, that's sad. Poor dears.' There's nothing wrong with doing that, it's quite nice to care, but there's equally nothing wrong with finding an element of light in a dark moment. I deal with EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM I EVER ENCOUNTER by making a joke out of it, yet I never reply to myself with anger. I find it helps. There's enough shit in the world already, making that shit funnier is not always a bad thing.
Jason Manford is a wanker.
Seriously, asking for naked pictures on Twitter while he's married and has kids. But that's fine because he cares about Take That.
Hopefully we've all learned something here today. We can use it in our every day lives and put it towards us becoming better people. And everyone who, on a daily basis, judges people for having a laugh, can take their heads out of their own backsides, wipe the crap from their eyes and stop thinking their opinion matters. The only thing it will achieve is a sarcastic blog post.
*Why do articles still call it 'popular social networking site Twitter'? Everyone knows what it is. No-one calls the Bible 'popular fictional work of hatred' anymore. It's basically the same.
