Care is so crucial with social media

■ Time is a peculiar thing. At the start of our days it seems we have all the time in the world, we can’t wait to be older and off travelling the world, or just finish school. But as our days draw closer to an end and we grow old, we pray for more time; to be young again and to once again feel the vitality of youth.

We are placed with this juxtaposition for a number of reasons. To respect and be thankful for what we have, but also to remind us that we will not always feel or believe everything we feel now.

When we think about the growing number of trolls on Facebook, Snapchat and other social media sites, why are people continuing to use social media to shame and humiliate?

I can remember when I was small, we were all taught “don’t air your dirty laundry outside for everyone to see”. Now the opposite is occurring and apparently emerging as gratification.

Social media, unlike old letters, is not so easy to throw away; nor will it burn on the fire. Words burn much more slowly on Facebook and continue to inflame as people hit ‘like’, or ‘share’.

We have witnessed the implication of people’s personal accounts hindering job applications and other future endeavours, where one is easily caught out by one admission or another.

People’s good names and a lack of tact and decency have all somehow become mirrored – mirrored in the most unpleasant way.

Where is the implication for destroying a person’s good name? Why are bullies still allowed to go another round before they are knocked out with intellect and rapport?

What people forget, in receiving their five minutes of fame and glory, is that they may receive a lifetime of detest and travesty, the travesty being that an angry schoolgirl’s words can have unknown implications later, which may or may not be detrimental to her career or even her family.

Time is a funny old thing. It’s only with time that a niggle of doubt, worry and redemption emerges; in the dark of the night you twist and turn and wish you hadn’t rose and hit send. Yes, arguments are crucial to forming independent thought in a democratic country. Open debate lays the foundation for a fairer country for all – but there is no place for bullying, name calling or crude manners in free debate.

My mother always told my sisters and I “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”, and I’m starting to agree with her.

Julie Bennett Mountrath, Co Laois