Negative humor is the concept of
making others laugh at someone else’s expense. With the advent of social media
sites like Facebook and Instagram, we are exposed to negative humor on a much
more regular basis. Almost a year ago, some people from my high school made a
fake Instagram account claiming to be my best friend. They posted unflattering
pictures of my friend in addition to posting offensive comments. They were
funny to most of the people that saw them, except my friend. When my friend
found about the account, she was devastated to say the least. I talked to her
about it recently, and she remembers it vividly. The words she used to describe
the situation were “embarrassing” and “degrading.” Thankfully, we found the
people behind the account fairly quickly, and we forced them to delete the
account.
The
purpose for making the account was to make people who knew my friend laugh.
Surprisingly, the people who made the account were close friends of my best
friend. When the people made the account, they didn’t think it was that
offensive and did it for a laugh. Initially, only people in that friend group
followed the account, but eventually more people followed it thinking it was
actually my friend. That was how we found out about it.
What
made it so offensive was that the pictures and comments were things my friend
would never post. The pictures made my friend look bad, and the comments along
with them were usually suggestive and crude. What hurt her the most was that
the people behind the account were people she trusted and cared about. Since
then, she has forgiven those people, but I doubt she will ever forget what they
did to her. My friend has a lax personality and does not mind having fun poked
at her, but what these people did made her feel awful and betrayed. Social
media has countless benefits, but it can also be used as a weapon of negative
humor.
This is truly so sad! I don't understand why anyone would think this is funny. This is a really great example of how harmful negative humor can be on those who bare the burden of it. I can only imagine how horrible that was for your friend. I hope the people who made it learned their lesson and the impact that negative humor can have on people!
ReplyDeleteThis one really hit home with me. I was not your friend but I was the person doing the “funny” stuff. I never took it as far as making a fake account to get a laugh or anything to publically humiliate someone. How I do connect is that I used to often find myself being sarcastic. Too sarcastic. With my closest group of friends we can all dish it and we can all take it. I started to let that sarcastic side of me come out to people who did not know me on a deeper level. It created a bad perception of me. It was not that I was mean. They knew I was joking. It was not until this semester that I realized even if people know you are joking it can still hurt them. They still think about what you are saying and start to over analyze it. So this year I have tried so hard to watch what I say jokingly or not.
ReplyDeleteThis is terrible! I am so sorry that this happened to your friend! If I were her I don't know that I could ever forgive those people and trust them again. Even if it wasn't intended to hurt the person, that still doesn't make it okay. People in our society get so caught up in trying to be funny and make others laugh to get attention that they lose sight of who they are hurting. Just because something is intended as a joke doesn't make it hurt any less.
ReplyDelete