Same incident — Different responses in real life and on line.
The medium is absolutely the message.
Gone!
I wrote here about our experience when our RV, out of nowhere, disintegrated. You know, the accident in which we received no ticket and no citation. The accident where we had cops and first responders simply blown away by how our vehicle seemed to disappear in front of all our eyes.
We know how unbelievably lucky we are to be alive and well. We are beyond grateful.
Care and compassion.
I wrote last week about the care, concern and humanity my family saw on display at our crash site. I will hold these memories in my heart for, I hope, as long as I live. The love and compassion was multiplied by friends, family and friends of friends — who read and shared our story.
If someone knew us — or knew someone who knew us — they reached out to us with generosity, kindness and concern.
Sigh… and then there are the people who don’t know us.
The EXACT same crisis. The same little family…
resulted in completely different comments based on where they were said… and who people assumed were listening.
So, unbeknownst to our little family — we had gone viral!
The video of our wreckage was shared on Instagram — by someone completely unknown to us — it has — at last count — over 340,000 views.
In fact, no one in my family even has an Instagram account.
Yeah, the comments…
I don’t have to share the comments with you — because before I write any further — I know you know the comments.
And I know you can probably find them with a few clicks of your mouse…
The “dumb-asses”, the snarky comments, the lies, the insults (some, yes, very funny.)
Many were in a variety of languages (Go us! We obviously went internationally viral.)
We did not have to translate — we got it — we were ridiculed in a number of languages — by over one third of a million people.
Let me repeat that — ONE THIRD OF A MILLION PEOPLE decided to ring in on our devastating day.
Not ONE commenter was kind, concerned or inquisitive about our well being. Not one.
And I know, I KNOW IN MY HEART — that if these people were with us the day of the incident — it’s very possible these same exact people might very well have been the people sacrificing their blankets and masks for our safety.
THIS STORY HAS NO ENDING. THERE’S NO MORAL HERE.
I will have no great ending for this. I won’t “fix social media” or the internet and I don’t know if the snarky commenters would have changed their words if they knew my family would be reading them.
The video of the accident tells part of the story — and not the whole story.
I think we’re all guilty of this… but the Instagrammers (and perhaps we’ve now reached other social networks) filled in the parts of the story that were not clear in the video —
with no research, no knowledge, and no care for the truth.
Our little story will probably not be remembered by anyone but us — and that’s completely fine. And, the 340,000 viewers and commenters will move on and might not even remember their “Yeah, we’re clear on the right” comment tomorrow.
But I guess, if I have to end with anything — is when you post on the internet — can you maybe take a minute and imagine the person that you’re ridiculing might be a young girl?
And that that middle schooler might actually be reading your “humor?”
Or that an 11-year-old might have been told she’s gone viral by another middle schooler — who very well might continue sharing and mocking her online?
PLEASE EMBRACE HUMANITY. IN PERSON. ONLINE. ALWAYS.
I know in my heart — from my first post — that people care. People were warm, loving, kind and considerate in the face of our unbelievable accident. Can I please ask that we show that same face on social media?
We have one humanity… let’s please show it. Always.
