Sometimes, social media bites
Whoever said photos of kids and pets bring out the best in people uttered those words long before social media crashed the party.
On Saturday, The Press printed a photo submitted by a local reader. The photo showed a sweet little boy kissing his bunny-eared dog, who was looking straight ahead at the camera with curled lip.
Was the dog one of those canines whose lip lift is actually the doggy equivalent of a grin? Or was it a menacing look based on discomfort? Was the dog uncomfortable at being kissed by the toddler? At having to wear stupid pink bunny ears? At having its photo taken?
About a zillion "experts" chimed in on The Press's Facebook page. Easter Weekend became Hysteria Weekend, as literally thousands of Facebook opinionators condemned the photo, the family, and of course, The Press for sharing it. The Press employee who manages the newspaper's Facebook page had to implement new filters because the language was so foul.
What's odd is that the virulent commenters did not know the dog. They had never met the family. One photo was their entire exposure to this specific issue, but that didn't dissuade them from pummeling the family with their keyboard fists.
On Monday, The Press published a story about the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the photo, along with the original photo and an additional photo of the little boy posing happily with his dog. At the request of the family, who had tired of the relentless abuse, The Press also removed all of the offending items from the Facebook page but not from The Press website, where reaction was comparatively tame.
Social media can be fun, informative and extremely useful. It can also be a shark tank injected with fresh blood. Before social media ever existed, the world was pockmarked with self-anointed saviors who felt compelled to tell complete strangers how they should live their lives. Social media has only facilitated that rude, unwanted behavior.
Maybe it can now be put to one of its better uses. Maybe all those presumptuous, self-righteous people who never met this family can use Facebook to apologize.