Today’s
society practically lives online. You may run into 1 or 2 people that despise
all things social media. Then your face looks shocked like the painting, The Scream, or like the emoji with the
oval mouth. Either way online interactions practically rule world, especially
for younger generations. In these interactions we often react in a variety of
ways. Facebook is one of the biggest social media platforms. Their developers
came to a realization that we respond to things with more than just a thumbs-up
or thumbs-down. So they decided to add additional reactions. They range from
smiles to angry but the one that bothers me the most is the laughing Ha-ha
reaction.
Here’s
a little context for you. People have laughed at me and mocked me my whole
life. Personally I don’t laugh when something is not funny. To me, it is
immature to laugh when the topic is not funny or even meant to be funny. Jokes
and anecdotes are funny. A comment/statement on Facebook is not always funny.
Sometimes it is just stating a fact or having a discussion.
Sometimes
people put the laughing emoji to laugh at you for saying something they perceive
as stupid. Facebook has opened the door for bullies to make fun without saying
anything. When I see a laughing emoji as a reaction to one of my comments, I am
immediately bought back to the high school cafeteria where people giggle over
the smallest thing. What are we? Kids? I am pretty sure that most of the
interactions I have online are with adults over the age of 25. By this age most
people don’t randomly giggle over things. A more mature reaction would be
thumbs-up or a smile and move on. Why make people feel bad about posting
something. I can’t count the number of times that I have deleted my own comments
online because I felt so bad about what I wrote even though there was nothing
inherently wrong with it. Sometimes I know it’s best to take back my
words and just not continue the conversation. I have learned over the years
that its best to avoid conflict and pick your battles if at all possible.
My
main point is that before your react to something, you should think about how
that person might feel. I catch myself in this often and try to make sure that
I react respectfully.
