FAR too many Irish people over the age of 18 will be familiar with ‘The Fear’ – the feeling of dread that sets in on a Sunday morning after a heavy night on the town.
Luckily, the majority of people will find that their drunken antics are quickly forgotten.
But because of smartphones and social media, the same cannot be said for ‘Slane Girl’, the 17-year-old schoolgirl who was pictured taking part in a sex act with a boy during the Eminem concert at the weekend.
The young girl was sedated in hospital after images of the incident were posted on the internet and shared by hundreds of Twitter and Facebook users.
Very few of us can say that we survived our teenage years without making a mistake, or doing something we regretted while under the influence.
This did not stop countless people from going on social media to vilify this teenager with calls for her (and in most cases not the boy) to be named and shamed.
While this incident will hopefully become just a bad memory, for the moment, at any rate, this schoolgirl must be feeling that her life is ruined.
All this because a small number of people pressed a button that set the unstoppable wheels of Twitter into motion.
Like a box of matches in the hands of a responsible adult, social media can be a useful tool and a force for good; it can help to highlight injustice and corruption and instantly inform us about important events happening all over the world.
Put the same box of matches into the hands of a child who does not understand the consequences of their actions and you have a recipe for disaster.
This, combined with our voyeuristic culture, unfortunately means there will most likely be several more #Slanegirl incidents before action is taken.
In the meantime, we can all take some personal responsibility by thinking before we tweet.
