I am not a typically soft spoken, nice person. You know the type that would hand over their life savings if asked nicely enough. I can stand my ground and often have my say. But seriously, when did people get so mean? A couple of recent events have made me look at society and drop my jaw in shock.
My very first article was posted a couple of days ago. I have been writing since forever, some very personal and some just everyday life. Writing is my coping mechanism. I thought long and hard about what I should send in first. I wanted to be heard, I wanted a response. I chose to publicly talk about something personal, yet kept it light as the article had some humour to it. Never did I think for once second that so many people would get offend and sort of hate mail me. Saying really mean things and calling me names I have never been called in my life. How did we get so mean? So you don’t agree with my article, which is you’re given right. But surely there is no need to verbally abuse a total stranger. Jaw drop!
Another jaw drop moment. I joined a development class for babies, these day’s you do everything and anything to ensure your child has the best chance for success in life. So it is all moms with the option of tagging a friend or family member along. The one mommy brought her mother with. As soon as she sat down I felt her cold steel stare stabbing me. So I politely said hello and waited for the class to get started. She then suddenly started to mumble about “back in the day” and I do believe I rolled my eyes (without her seeing of course). She was a retired school teacher and has been teaching since God created heaven and earth. She told me how this generation get’s everything wrong and how we will suffer the consequences. Then in a very aggressive voice said that my seven month old has buckled knees, he is not going to be very good in athletics. Jaw drop!
In trying to understand all of this I remembered my mother voice in my head saying that if I do not have anything nice to say, I should rather not say anything at all. You get taught in school and hopefully by your parents that words hurt. This seems to be forgotten easily when the tong can strike a burn with no real consequence these days. I believe there is a very fine line between honesty and rudeness. If my best friend told me that my child’s knees were buckled, I would say thank you for your honesty and maybe get it checked out. But for a total stranger to think it is ok to be plain rude and say mean things go’s beyond my imagination.
Which leaves me with a question for you, how did we get so mean?
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