You’re walking down the hall between classes like any other day. Suddenly the crowd erupts. Everyone is screaming “FIGHT!” and rushing to their cellphones to take pictures and videos. The teachers are running out of their classrooms to try to stop the flailing fists. Everyone around is entranced and late to their next class.
You get to class and coming down from the adrenaline from being around the fight. You take out your iPod to see if there’s anything about it on Facebook, searching for the juicy details. Instead of the normal “Omg so bord. LMS for a truth is!” statuses you see something else.
The word “fight” is popping up all over the newsfeed. Friends are updating about how they were there and how much blood was on the floor and who threw punches. They’re getting entertainment out of their classmates beating the crap out of each other.
I’m not a violent person, but I do see humor in shows that display physical pain like MTV’s Jackass and Pranked. But why do we find conflict so exhilarating and hypnotizing? Is it the way they react? Are we living our lives vicariously through their violence? Is our anger is being expressed as excitement instead? Is it just human nature to feel electrified when they see people hurting each other?
Either way we as a school should learn to control our reactions to our peers’ conflicts. Instead of putting it on the Internet, we should just do the good old fashion whispering behind their backs. In the old days we didn’t have the camera phones to capture the violence on film. Plus, you can get in trouble for uploading pictures or videos online.
It’d be the best decision to stay out of the drama of school fights. Try to resist the temptation to post a status about it because the “likes” aren’t for the right reasons. It’s just not cool.