Social Media and Empathy

To survive on social media one needs to be able to bear the levels of abuse and rancour that in the days of yore was reserved for public figures. Today, news emerged that a well-known Indian TV news anchor had been duped into believing that she had been offered an associate professorship to teach journalism at Harvard. The reactions to the news on Twitter made me uneasy. There were those who took the opportunity to flaunt their knowledge of the academic tenure system in the U.S., while expressing sympathy towards the journalist. Whether they were just partaking in the spectacle of a famous (and pretty) woman having been humiliated or whether they were genuinely concerned for her, I don't know. When a pretty woman falls from grace, it brings out the worst in people, but that is also a blog for another day. Yes, it is a crazy story, and you don't need to add to the spectacle by commenting on how crazy it is publicly. If you know the woman, reach out to her in private and offer support. But, if this lot were experiencing schadenfreude at least they were trying to mask it. The other lot were openly jubilant. the journalist in question is a centrist who, in these dark times, leans left more than right, like almost famous journalists in India. So her detractors came from the right-wing and the left-wing. I have nothing to say about the right-wing nuts, but the response from the left-wing was dispiriting too. Pulling up old tweets where she had painted the government in favourable light? Would they do the same if she had been in a car accident? Even if you hate her political positions, even if you think she is a sellout, why do you feel the need to react at all, positively or negatively? When something bad happens to someone you don't like, and the misfortune has nothing to do with the reason you don't like them, maybe it is a good idea to hold your peace? Or at least don't do a victory dance in public. Of course this sage advice allows reasonable exceptions such as many of the right-wing leaders and their stooges.