I’m sending this message with my unconditional respect.
We live in an age where cameras are everywhere and sometimes very unfortunate scenes are recorded and posted online. If you are perusing your social media site and see some questionable footage, I urge you to simply abstain from participating in “lynch mob mentality” commentary.
A “lynch mob” is defined as an angry crowd of people who want to punish someone without a trial because they believe that person has committed a crime. Online punishing can come in the form of bullying, threats and spewing vitriol.
I’ll admit that I’ve participated in this type of banter. I’m not proud of it, and I plan to abstain from it from now on. It’s also important to realize that in this day and age, any of us could find ourselves starring in a damaging film clip, so this is an equal-opportunity event waiting for pretty much anyone.
Danny Brown wrote a good article entitled, “Social Media, Bullying, & the Growing Lynch Mob Mentality”. You can read it online if you Google it.
Again, I send you my respect and appreciation for reading my message. I urge you to abstain from online lynch mentality behavior, or at the very least to put some thought into your words and how they could affect people before expressing your opinions about difficult situations caught on film.
Kate Veh,
Soldotna