Not long ago people reached out to each other face to face.  They met at supermarkets, in neighborhood parks, at church and at their jobs…they used phones and letters to communicate and spread important news and information.  Word of mouth was the way most people learned about news and important events.  Now, in the internet age, the age of email, of blogs, of facebook, myspace and twitter, word of mouth has taken a turn.  Instead of face to face meetings of friends in ordinary, real life places, many friends will never meet face to face and their one and only way of communicating will be through social media and online applications.

Back in the good old days where people had to meet face to face to spread the news, and even when they used the telephone and writing letters, people were held physically accountable for the things that they said.  What do I mean?  Well, if there was a person who was known for saying nasty, inappropriate things in your town you knew about them…and the nicest name they would be called would be a “malicious gossip”.  Those people who looked to stir up trouble were called troublemakers and word spread about them enough so that people didn’t take them seriously, and their community didn’t allow they to stir up a bees nest.  In the non-internet age, people had to be willing to put their face and their reputation behind what came out of their mouth; the good, the bad, the ugly and the inappropriate.

Now in the digital and online era people have become more free; many seem to think that just because they can hide behind an internet persona it means that they should be able to say whatever they feel no matter who they hurt, or even no matter the validity of their statements and accusations.  The online age has made people free; free to connect with those they would never have met (the positive of the online age) and free to become as malicious, as hurtful, as hateful and as untruthful as they desire (the negative of the online age).

Did the online age give rise to the death of the social conscious?  Since people do not have to put their face and their reputations on the line in real life do they feel free to let go of commonly held social normals and morals?  Since people do not have to openly face the people they are bashing, see the pain they are causing in real life, and deal with the emotional backlash of knowing that they are hurting and destroying people and families do they feel that it is acceptable to let their inner evil out?

There have been many examples of the lack of a social conscious that many seem to feel now that they can hide who they are behind a computer screen.  Probably the most well recognized recent case being that of Lori Drew, the mom “cyber bully” who tormented a 13 year old girl until that girl hung herself in her closet.  A grown woman, a woman with a daughter of her own, a woman who knew the young child she was talking to had low self-esteem and emotional issues, a woman who bullied and degraded a fragile child until she broke, until she hung herself in her closet to escape the pain.  If that is not an example of the lack of a social conscious I don’t know what is.  Do you think Lori Drew would have bullied that young girl face to face, do you think she would have put herself forward in real life and acted with such maliciousness if her peers were there to watch and judge her?  I think not.

The death of a social conscious can be seen clearly in the ongoing drama surrounding Shellie Ross and the loss of her toddler son in a drowning accident.  In this day and age when twitter has become most people’s connection to their friends and family, Shellie reached out to her online network of friends and family once asking for prayers as her son was being worked on by the EMTs who were trying to say his life.  Once…this scared mom reached out once asking for prayers, the same as a mom who would call her church prayer line asking for prayers, or a mom who called her sister asking for help…but she used Twitter.  Twitter, the online age’s response to phones and letters.

Now, immediately after that Shellie received an outpouring of prayers and well wishes via twitter and more via blogging forums where she was a member.  People kept watching and hoping for the best.  Until the news spread that two year old Bryson indeed drown.  Immediately there was an outpouring of support for Shellie and of grief for the loss of her son, a tragedy.  People rallied, people prayed, a blogger friend traveled to be with her and her family until her husband and other members of her family could come to her.  A true outpouring of support from a community; the online community.  Blogs were posted about her situation and people sent their prayers and well wishes.  A true community coming together to support one of their own.

But

At the same time this positive outpouring was occurring something else was happening.  A group of people, protected by the computer screen between themselves and the tragedy that had occurred, decided to lash out, to be judgemental, to place blame, to become nasty and to turn against a mom who was going through the worst time in her life.  People on twitter who play the blame game, who contact news agencies, who spread negativity.  Twitter users who turn on a mom just because she is a blogger and they think they have the right to make assumptions:

This is a perfect example of the death of the social conscious…a crisis, a tragedy and people feel that they have the right to put themselves and their negativity into the online world.  And the sad thing is, it’s not only a few people on twitter who are acting like wolves who have scented blood.  No, there are plenty of people blogging negativity, assumptions, guilt trips and accusations about bad parenting…all in the hopes of attention.  The only reason for a person to behave in that manner is to gain attention and a social spotlight; in effect they are capitalizing on a child’s death to bring attention to themselves.  And these people, the hateful people who are making this world a worse place by spewing their hate, have made this even more personal that it was…they have used this child’s picture in their blog posts.  Shameful, disgusting and horrible.  There is nothing more shameful or indicative of the loss of a social conscious and the morals which should bind a community together; even an online community.

So, what’s the point?  Does it really matter if the online era has given rise to the death of the social conscious?  Does it really matter that people who would be too ashamed of their actions in real life now have a medium which allows them to act as they would like without real life repercussions?  Does it really matter that there are people out there who capitalize on a child’s death for their own mean…it’s not like there weren’t positive outpourings as well.  But yes, it does matter, even if there was a positive outpouring, the negativity is what people are going to see…the negativity is what news outlets are going to see, the negativity is going to give all people using online applications a bad name.  So yes, it matters.  In a world where there is enough evil, enough attention grabbing, enough hurt and pain and grief, we as a people in real life and in online life should band together.  Instead of ripping each other part and showing a distinct lack of a social conscious and the morals which make a community, we should band together, we should step up and create a real community; a community of the online age.  And, we should band together against those people who seek to use the internet and online applications that have brought us all together.  We should band together, not to become like the cyber bullies and tormentors that we are against, but by creating an even stronger community with a social conscious that supports those in need and who are suffering.

If we don’t create a better community and world who will?