Thinking Before Speaking

Every generation has a certain group they're afraid of. As children, we fear authoritative teachers. As elderly folk, we'll be wary of unruly teenage boys in tracksuits, congregating on street corners and getting through countless bottles of White Lightning. As for now though I'm afraid, nay, absolutely terrified of a completely different group of people. I, a 22-year-old, unemployed, University student with slightly nerdish tendencies, am absolutely terrified of the 12-16 female demographic; specifically the ones who claim to be fans of the likes of Justin Bieber, One Direction and Jedward coupled with the fact that they're just about computer-literate enough to easily use Twitter, but lack a great deal in standard etiquette.

Now I hope you've got your attention-paying brain in today because this next bit might get a whole load of confusing. Last week, an unsigned American indie band, who've been active since 2009 named One Direction, announced that they wanted to sue the British X Factor-spawned, active since 2010 5-piece named One Direction who are, as it happens, currently "breaking" into the US popular music scene. The reason for One Direction's lawsuit against One Direction was because they claim they've been using the name "One Direction" longer than One Direction have and, therefore, One Direction are effectively using the name "One Direction" without One Direction's permission (see, I told you this would get confusing).

In true teenage girl fashion, the Twitter feed of one of the One Directions (the American one) was barraged by threats from the British one's fans. Threats included obscure in-joke references to attacking them with 'spoons and carrots', one even wished death upon the lead singer's family members and a fair few even threatened castration. Ever so slightly more recently, news surfaced of one girl close to the band receiving abuse from the legions of vicious, rabid animals after trying to pursue a relationship with her chosen Direction (is that what they're individually known as? I don't care, it is now). Of course, such words of malice only exist in the hypothetical realm of the Inter-hyper-textual-speedway-netty-webby-thing; any fourteen-year-old girl who threatened to chop a grown man's goolies off would probably think to go for the toes, or else seize up and cry 'whee-whee-whee-whee-whee' all the way home. Unfortunately, kids these days know far more than they should and exude more confidence and cockiness and stubbornness than a religious fundamentalist arguing with science, citing reasons that if Stephen Hawking is so smart, why doesn't he just get up out of the wheelchair... hmm? In that case, I occasionally fear that we have to resign to the fact that these kids are, actually, fucking psychopaths.

Of course, it could just be a case of youthful arrogance, of not thinking before speaking (or tweeting), but some of the things obsessed fans come out with these days are nothing short of harrowing. Other examples of flippant arrogant remarks occur every day. In recent times and in certain social circles, the word "rape" has been adopted into fairly common, casual usage, typically by those playing video games. Observe:

'So many zombies. Aww mate, I'm about to get raped by 'em all! Oh wait, it's okay, I have my machine gun. I'm gonna rape 'em all with this now.'

Obviously it's all fun and games engaging in colloquialisms amongst friends, but should one of those friends have actually been or be close to somebody else who happens to have been a rape victim, it hardly seems acceptable. Same with cigarettes. As a non-smoker, it is, naturally, my job to chastise smokers for the fact that they smoke. Other non-smokers around me have fulfilled their jobs by commenting on the smokers' "cancer sticks", stemming from the idea that cigarettes cause lung cancer in one of them 'it's funny cuz it's true' situations. However, when people or others close to them happen to have had a run in with the big C, suddenly the humour disappears and inappropriateness pops out of the bathroom, looks around a silent crowd and asks 'what have I missed?'

The problem with Twitter is that it's essentially one big public forum, one giant social circle consisting of people from all walks of life; from the bands and musicians to their crazy obsessed fans, to the hack writers who moan about them and pop a link to it on their feed every week. But in a giant forum like that, one needs "netiquette" and, you know, generally the ability to think before speaki- typing. Even a few weeks ago a white British student was jailed (or fined, or shot, I didn't pay much attention to the story) for making a racist remark towards a black footballer who collapsed mid-game.

Because "tweeting" is so short, it becomes spur-of-the-moment. One thought that popped into your head in one second might actually take you a further thirty to analyse, to think about the actual message you're putting across, how it could be interpreted and any possible ramifications for carrying out the act. But fuck that, by the time those thirty seconds have passed, you already tweeted 29 seconds ago and statistically 500 million-gajillion people have already seen it. You're a monster, all because you posted something before actually thinking it through. The legions of One Direction fans who tweeted the other One Direction with hate mail and abuse end up showing themselves up for what they actually are - a mob. They may be defending their idols but they essentially come across as two things:

a) idiots, for not thinking things through, and
b) scarily horrifying, right up to the point that if I see a young girl wearing a One Direction T-shirt in public, I run a mile, naturally assuming she'll claw out my innards with her bare fingers if I so much as disagree with her choice in music.

Then again, I've been listening to BBC 6music an awful lot more lately so I'm pretty much detached from most current music trends anyway.