Not-so-socially accepted media
Nothing unites the people of the world better than the combined spirit that comes from acts of incredible sportsmanship and feats of human ability like the Olympics. After all, it's a rare thing that can transcend both language and cultural barriers.
And nothing is more opposite of that than social media.
Don't get me wrong. I love social media. Other than this blog, I have a Facebook account, a twitter handle, twitter handle for this blog, and am on linkedin to name an easy few.
But the anonymity that social media provides can make people just the worst.
Which brings us to today's story.
So, yesterday-ish (time zones...you get it), the men's synchronized 10 meter platform diving competition was held. Great Britain competitors Tom Daley and Pete Waterfield were home team favorites (natch) and doing really well...but still came in 4th. To which most of us are like, "chin up, fellas, you're still Olympians and we're all just sitting here in our cubes pretending to be important."
But one person in particular was all, "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!!!" and threw things and stuff because, you know, people overreact.
Then, because heightened negative emotions and instantly published media are always a good mix, they took to twitter under user name Rileyy_69 and told Tom Daley, "You let your dad down i hope you know that."
Which at first I'm sure no one was like, "Oooh! He played the disappointment card!" Except, it's important to understand that it is widely known in the UK that Tom Daley's dad died last year as a result of aggressive brain cancer.
Nuh. Uh. So, now everyone is all, "*GASP* OH NO HE DIDN'T!!!" Because, low blow, right?
And Daley's twitter followers were not having it. They swarmed on Rileyy_69 for his stinging remark and even managed to get him trending on twitter. Which not only made Kim Kardashian jealous, but made him be, all "Why are people attacking me? jeez! Can't you take a joke."
But, apparently anonymous tweeting demands a response because Rileyy_69's next few tweets looked something like this.
"Tom, did you hear me? I said I was sorry."
"Tom? You there? Tooooooom! I'm trying to apologize to you!"
"TOM I SAID I WAS SORRY AND YOU DON'T EVEN RESPOND TO ME I HATE YOU AGAIN YOU'RE THE WORST LOUD NOISES!!!"
But what Rileyy_69 didn't realize as he was not-so-carefully choosing his words 140 characters at a time, was that since 2003, Great Britain has had a "let's keep it civilized, people" type-law that allows people to be arrested for malicious communications and can face legal consequences for abusive commentary.
So Rileyy_69, (who, no surprise here, is 17-years old), was arrested. But before he was taken to the station, he promised in his last tweet, "I will be back."
(Huh. Those words really lose their impact when they aren't said by an Austrian-accented robot from the future, don't they?)
Anyway, there are a lot of lessons we can all learn here. Sportsmanship. Kindness. Humanity. Not taking twitter anonymity at face value.
And most importantly let's never forget that sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can come back and totally haunt you and give you a police record.
