It was around 2006 and we were in the era of blogs, a prelude to that of social networks. I then had a certainty that has aged badly like a bundle of baloney forgotten in a car left for two days in a car park in the July sun.
My certainty: if people were forced to comment under their own name, with their photo, the level of discussion in blogs would be greatly improved. Comments in forums adjacent to blogs were often reminiscent of the film Flight over a cuckoo’s nest…
My reasoning: it’s very easy to talk nonsense when you write under the pseudonym Banane-Banane1973…
Anonymity, I thought, was a tremendous shield against embarrassment and shame.
It’s crazy how the years have proven me wrong!
Yes, yes, the trolls anonymous are rampant on the networks and are a plague…
But can we talk about the Jades, Maurices, Ginettes, Kevins and Édouards who comment under their real names, from accounts that show us their real lives?
If the era of social media has taught us anything, it’s that even in the open, #people continue to spout an impressive array of nonsense. It’s as if digital tools have killed, in some, the feeling of embarrassment that once pushed us to keep all sorts of pointless mental farts in our hearts.
This week, it is the actress Guylaine Tremblay who masterfully exposed the phenomenon. Replacing Julie Snyder at the helm of Noovo’s late-night talk show, she received the following message on her Facebook page:
“Guylaine, seriously stop surgeries or injections. You were so beautiful. Now you have a man’s jawbone. Square and cheeks that no longer belong to you. Too bad for your beautiful face full of emotion that I or we will never see again. You were so beautiful with your whole story in your face…. very sad ”
Guylaine Tremblay protested against this woman’s poorly written point of view, adding that often, “98%” of them are women who bitch other women in this way.
I don’t know if Guylaine Tremblay has had cosmetic surgery and I sincerely don’t care. It looks at her. I also don’t know if women are harder on women, I thought it was all the fault of the patriarchy, that will be for another column.
I know the popular comedian exercised great restraint by not naming the woman who judged her face the way we judge the local restaurant’s dessert menu on TripAdvisor.
And I know that humanity has never commented so publicly, on everything and anything. I don’t think that’s such a big step forward for the species.
One can publicly comment on the news on the pages of the media themselves and on social networks, one can comment on one’s own Facebook page; on Trip Advisor, on Airbnb, on Instagram; there are sites to comment on the work of university professors, doctors, employers; we can comment on the page of the Prime Minister, our MP, our mayor…
In short, we live in the People’s Republic of comments.
Commenting has become a kind of human activity, a hobby, a way to pass the time, like tanning or gardening.
A reflex, too: it’s as if some people couldn’t help but comment. And the more people comment, the less filter they seem to have.
I also note a curious phenomenon: 98% of the comments I receive privately in my email from The Presseven when critical, are…relevant.
But when I read the public comments under my columns on the Facebook page of The Pressthe exact opposite happens: 98% of comments are irrelevant…
Our brain is a marvel of ingenuity, with frankly impressive resources. The human brain sent a man to the moon, decoded the human genome and created vaccines that saved millions of lives…
But there are plenty of brains that decide it’s of the utmost importance to comment on empty things like the appearance of a stranger who works on TV.
Which begs the question: what is this mysterious mental process that drives a person to opine publicly, on a February evening, about another person’s cheekbones?
I think of this mysterious mental process – the one that leads to that fateful decision to press PUBLISH – and I have the same feeling as when I think of the seconds before the Big Bang: a vertigo caused by certainty (another !) to be faced with a phenomenon that will never be completely explained by science.
Greetings to 98% of the people who will comment on this column on the Facebook page of The Press.