VIEWPOINTS
It’s 5:30 pm.
You’re finally home from a long, grueling day, and you sink into the couch – the one that’s molded perfectly to your shape. Like clockwork, your dog curls up beside you. You want to let your mind drift.
Instead of flipping on the television, like the good ol’ days, you reach for that little doomsday device in your front pocket: your cellphone. Your brain makes your thumb twitch, craving a dose of shock and serotonin.
You scroll past the perfect photos of your friends on Instagram, but they aren’t doing the trick – they look too pretty and happy.
It’s actually making you feel worse about yourself. So instead, you go to Facebook, where the real doom lives.
There, you’re free to scroll past one catastrophe after another, laugh-react to absurd memes and, if you’re like thousands of other San Angeloans, check out the “Say Cheese Tom Green County Mugshots and Arrests” page.
“Oh yeah,” you think, “That’ll do it. That’ll make me feel better about myself.”
The Lowest Common Denominator
Pages like this exist for cities across the country, and they are little more than digital arenas where community members react with disgust, shame, anger, laughter, mockery, or whatever overpowering emotion suits the moment.
It’s all out in the open, like a public roast. Only the person being roasted isn’t in on the joke. They’re the stuffed pig on a skewer.
Virtue signaling is loud, and little hands hurriedly compete for attention at their keyboards. The comment sections become breeding grounds for the pent-up frustrations of everyday life.
Under one recent post, a commenter wrote, “So he’s a druggie, hoarder, who tries to run away from his problems,” beneath someone’s bleak, unflattering booking photo. Another simply said, “Death penalty.”
Such comments are common, often veering into blatant racism, sexism, mockery, and petty arguments between adult strangers.
It’s a space where anyone can chime in, say their piece about someone they’ve likely never met, hurl a few insults, and move on with their day.
Will You Cast the First Stone?
For the person on the other side of that photo, it’s not just a comment. It’s another kick while they’re already down.
Sure, outrage over violent crimes is understandable. But these reactions aren’t reserved for those cases — they’re flung at nearly everyone who appears on the page.
Commenters seem to forget they’re talking about real human beings.
They also forget that being arrested doesn’t automatically mean someone is guilty. But that’s a whole other conversation.
Pages like this spread like a plague, seeping into the cracks of our fractured society when we aren’t looking.
Commenters joke about “grabbing popcorn” as they sift through the cruelty, treating it all like entertainment.
It’s a spectacle to them.
But do these people ever stop to wonder what the families are feeling? Has social media made us so entitled that we believe every space belongs to us? That we know everything, and know better than everyone else?
From My Viewpoint
The way I see it, there are two kinds of people. One looks at someone doing things differently and thinks, “That person has no idea what they’re doing. If they only knew what I know!”
The other pauses and wonders, “Is there something they know that I don’t? What information might be missing here? What can I learn from this?”
I believe it’s possible to move beyond our initial, internal reactions. Maybe your values make you feel outraged when someone breaks the law – that anger is valid. That first wave of emotions is real. But it doesn’t mean you have to surrender to it.
Emotional regulation is essential for any adult who wants to contribute meaningfully to society. A mean-spirited Facebook comment doesn’t help anyone. It doesn’t solve a problem. It only adds more noise to a chaotic space.
Is it possible that we’ve simply grown too comfortable with our cruelty? There are countless factors that might contribute to this shift, especially when we consider the political climate and hate being peddled by individuals at every level of government.
Be the Change You Want to See
Some people believe we are too-far gone, and that hate is here to stay.
I don’t see it that way. I believe we can still come back from this.
To you, it might not seem like a big deal – it’s just a Facebook comment. There are bigger things to worry about.
But I’d argue that life is made up of the little things. And that the worst things often begin by ignoring the small, everyday actions that lead us there.
I challenge us all to do better. To be better. To remember our humanity.
Before it really is too late.
