We’ve all been ‘given’ rights as human beings, which is an exceptionally good thing. Something that people who came before most of us fought so hard for. It's an exceptional given privilege which we should all be grateful for. Despite the many flaws that our democratic country still possesses, freedom of expression is still something we should celebrate. We’re now in a time where we get to actually enjoy the benefits and feed from the fruits of what has been almost readily earned for us.
It’s in platforms like these where we get to say what we feel and boldly put our opinions out there for everybody to see. We’re not as restricted anymore. We’ve somehow found our ground as human beings. I mean we’re no longer constrained in our thoughts. It seems however a lot of times we are using the freedom we have to express ourselves in a rather immature manner, if I can call it that. If we're not judging people, we're insulting and disrespecting each other and making rather unpleasant comments in an abrupt manner.
These are all the things that make the whole idea of freedom of expression questionable in a lot of angles. It seems we have barely matured to the level of being able to take responsibility for our freedom; or rather most of us have not even begun to enter the phase of ‘maturity’.
The saddest or rather the most unfortunate part about this thing is that we are so explicit about it. We somehow always manage to condemn people and make each other very uncomfortable. The comments we make and the things that our statements imply manage to reduce another person to almost no size at all.
Hatred speech and all that, and it's an ongoing habit. We don't seem to be rational at all about what we express and in what manner we express it. We see such cases everyday around the people we live with (those we interact with online included). This makes me wonder if we're just a rude and insensitive bunch of idiots walking around big-headed, filled with the "I have a right to an opinion too" statement. Or maybe we have become just really comfortable in saying 'what we feel' regardless of what that does to another person.
It's only natural that as a person you're not going to like everything that everybody else does. How they dress, what they think about a particular issue, their general view on life or politics for instance; and even badly, how they look. The expression that somebody else is really ugly for instance. It's generic and there's really not much a person can do in such a case. But raving about it? That's very immature.
Some opinions are better left just in your head. There is really no need to express things that would hurt somebody else. Worse, if they're not even really relevant. The nasty comments we make online about each other. People don’t seem to realize what something like that could do to another person’s self-esteem. We’re changing the way people view themselves and their character in a vigorously negative manner without even actually realizing that mini fact.
A little statement that one unconsciously makes might do way more damage that could be imagined. We make each other feel so inferior, which could lead to another person to the extent of feeling useless; before you know it, depression, suicide and it’s over.
We should be using our freedom to build and encourage one another, not annihilating each other’s self-confidence. I don't know. But something is really wrong with the growth of mankind. We just seem to be swelling to explosion with rudeness, immaturity and irrational thinking and speech… And it’s quite ridiculous.
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