I confess I did use to watch Glee. I really don't bother much anymore as it strayed away from how the show was in Season 1 of being quirky and the underdogs still being underdogs, but at least finding some niche in high school society, as damaging as high school can be.
Anyway, I was flipping through channels this evening and heard the quote from Gwyneth Paltrow's character from the Tuesday evening Glee episode. I don't know what happened on the episode, so I cannot comment, however the quote I did hear and found speaks volumes about today's society, and also just what the internet is breeding.
The quote
I get it. We live in a culture of insults. I mean, we're constantly bombarded with these images of people who are richer than us and happier than us, and have more interesting sex than us, and it makes us feel terrible. You know, we tear them down to feel better about ourselves, but we don't just stop with the people who are on TV and magazines, we do it to everyone, and we think because it's done anonymously there are no ramifications. But there are ramifications, guys, because it makes you comfortable with insensitivity.
The internet has turned into a double edged sword. It has merit, but also a massive amount of societal destruction. A 15 year old boy was recently brutally murdered in Florida by his ex girlfriend, and 5 others, after a spat over facebook.
There was myspace bullying of taunting kids to kill themselves and in some cases kids did kill themselves.
As if it is not enough that there is bullying in high school, there is then bullying over the internet, through mobile phones.
And sadly enough, even as adults here, on a so called news site such as Newsvine, there are insults and bullying as well.
Technology has created such an easy accessible world to destroy and hurt people because it is not face to face, it is through a machine, yet people forget there is a human on the other side.
So this is exactly what we have now, a culture of insults. It is what we are stuck with. It is positively embarrassing. No one is going to change or rectify it and everyone thinks they are then entitled to say whatever they want at all because of Free Speech rights. I surely will not ever begrudge Freedom of Speech, but just because you have the right to say it, doesn't mean you should say it.
I'd love for respect to be restored, but sadly I don't think people really know what it means anymore.