It’s a well known fact that people don’t often wish the best for other people. Humans tend to relish and take delight in the suffering or despair of others.
I have a hobby of people watching, I enjoy observing the interactions of people with each other and trying to figure out their true intentions behind those interactions. Lately this hobby has included Facebook, I read people’s comments even non friends. I especially like the ones on controversial pages, and it’s on one of these pages I noticed what I stated in the first sentence.
The “Vaal intersections” page was one that brought out a variety of characteristics in people. It’s main aim was claimed to be to expose unfaithful people in the Vaal and it continued on to “expose” individuals for their infidelities. I wasn’t really interested in what the who’s who of Vaal was up to behind closed doors, what interested me was the responses from “friends” of the “exposed” individual. There was a range of comments, from supportive to defensive. The friends of the exposed individual would come to the person’s defense and damn the page for spreading lies. The counterparts would in turn corroborate the accusation and provide “proof” and testimonies that prove guilt! It was practically a court procession!
But what I found more interesting was when the admin posted a question whether to close the page or continue on. People were asked to like the status if they wanted to keep the page and comment if they wanted it closed. There were more likes than comments and funny enough, some of the people who’s friends were the subjects of these exposés were the ones who liked the status! Others went as far as commenting that the page was doing the general Vaal community a service. Note that these people were the ones who were condemning the airing of their friends dirty laundry on public forums, and coming to the defense of their accused friends!
I then came to the realization that Facebook was a platform which allowed people to assume which ever persona they saw fitting. Haven’t you wondered why some people are so outspoken on Facebook but in person the person is as shy as a turtle in a shell! Online people do and say things which they wouldn’t normally say or do in person. This sense of safety tends to bring out the true person and it’s this person that turns out to be a backstabbing bastard! Lol…
Here’s my conclusion: Success for humans is measured by how better you are when compared to the next person. And any flaw that is shown by others works to boost everyone else’s little egos. This increases exponentially when the subject of dismay is a socially higher ranked individual.
“success is never so sweet as when accompanied by the failure of a friend”
– Alan Shore (Boston Legal)
I am who/what/where/how/when/why i am…
TechniQue12
Midnight Sun 