Fiona McCade: Well, bile does have its uses I suppose

Published on Tuesday 19 July 2011 14:15

GIVE me five minutes and I could come up with a list of things I loathe that's longer than Simon Cowell's bank statement. In fact, I could happily start with Simon Cowell, followed swiftly by people who refuse to queue, Jimmy Tarbuck, Keira Knightley … the list goes on.

But generally, I try not to let the negativity get to me. I'd rather go out of my way to avoid these people than to hunt them down and kill them. (Well, apart from the people who won't queue. If I had a machine gun, I'd probably use it.)

I have strong dislikes but I prefer not to get homicidal about them. Unfortunately for Rebecca Black, not everybody feels this way. The 13-year-old is world famous for singing a song called Friday in a YouTube video.

She didn't write the song, but it's not great and neither is her singing, but hey, she's a child. Even if the sound of Friday makes you want to rip out your eardrums with a claw hammer and throw them to a pack of rabid hyenas, it's still just a song, sung by a little girl. Who would make a fuss about that?

Well, so far, more than three million people have felt the need to register their dislike of the video. Just the other week, it was removed from YouTube after enduring months of derisively negative comments.

However, for some, it wasn't enough to say how much they hated a child's attempt at making music. They sent her messages dripping with bile and hate; they wrote things like: "I hope you go cut (yourself] and die", and "I hope you'll get an eating disorder so you'll look pretty"; they e-mailed her and phoned her to threaten her life and demand that she take down the video.

Police are investigating. But meanwhile Rebecca can't go anywhere unaccompanied, for fear of being attacked.

Seriously, would you threaten to kill someone because you don't like their song? If that's normal, how come Cheryl Cole is still alive? What on earth happened to live and let live?

I just don't get it. But the way we express ourselves has definitely shifted over the last decade or so. It has a lot to do with the fact that people now hide behind internet identities, so flinging bile has become safe for the nameless, faceless millions who have nothing better to do than cyber-bully kids.

It's also much easier to spew a venom-filled e-mail and hit "send" than it used to be to write a letter in green ink, pay for a stamp and go out to post it. It feels like our whole society is getting more negative - and wallowing in it.

Take the first series of Big Brother, for instance. It was essentially a game show, so everyone cheered the contestants as they entered the house. Later, the audience started booing unpopular housemates. Fast-forward ten years and in the final Channel 4 series, the audience booed the new housemates the moment they emerged from their limos. For fun.

We're breeding a Taste Taleban, who can't tolerate things they don't like. They have to tear them down and totally destroy them, before moving on to the next thing that inspires their ire. Anyone is free to spew hate and negativity, especially if they're safe behind a firewall of internet anonymity.

OK, Friday is dire, so why not just turn it off? Ignore it. Maybe even have a laugh and get on with your life? It's not hurting anybody, it's not damaging, pornographic, or violent. It's a kid, singing a song. That's all.

I'm mystified by the energy some people put into hating, but perhaps there's something positive to say about it. It's no help to poor, little Rebecca Black, but perhaps it's necessary for all these angry, bitter people to have somewhere to vent their spleens.

Perhaps because they can sit at home alone, firing off death threats to young kids, they won't go out onto the streets, meet each other and pool their hate.

Perhaps, so long as people are free to hit the "dislike" button, there'll never be a Fourth Reich.