Breath in, Breath out, Repost

LAST week as I opened my facebook account to check whether classes were suspended (Yes! Guilty, these are those times of the year when I wish there was more than 24 hours to a day). My notification button was swamped. That’s odd, I seldom do social networking activities, I simply do not have the energy nor the time as of my current situation. But today was different. I simply sat and did what any I presumed during that day did for Chris Lao. I spent 30 more minutes to my usual 10 minute routine check on my facebook account. Reporting facebook hate pages and reposting whatever I can in support for him.

Today, I was reading the Sunday paper and yes today is Monday, and found an article by Miguel Tanchico in the Lifestyle section [See: http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/8609/because-we-all-deserve-to-be-informed], “Because we all deserve to be informed”. He started his article with a noun Schadenfreude, pronounced as shahd-n-froi-duh See: http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?schade01.wav=schadenfreude], it is defined by Merriam – Webster as enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others.

Social network sites is full of schadenfreude. Things posted on such sites and their pages may not necessarily espouse hate or distaste against a person or persons but simply finding humor on the troubles of others is something that should not be taken lightly. Bullying has crossed boundaries and is no longer confined in the four corners of high school campuses and office buildings it has taken flight through the web. Bullying need take the form of a hateful word, or a judgmental note, it can be the simple repost of a thing we find hilarious at the expense of another person that only really adds insult to injury. So before you exercise your constitutional right to free speech and click that share button, take a minute and think whether the laugh for kicks is worth it. You might find yourself at the other end of the line someday holding the shorter stick!

Entry #8