I love social media, I think it is so useful in many ways that I cannot contemplate life without it anymore. Yet when it comes to atrocious events like the Manchester attacks, it brings out the worst in people. The responses to Ariana Grande's tweet offering her condolences to the victims of the bombing are vile. The fact that one Twitter user went as far to suggest that she was involved in the attack is atrocious. Love her or hate her, Tuesday 23rd 2017 should not have been about scoring points, but remembering those who perished at the Manchester Arena and those still missing.
Ariana Grande has certainly made some controversial remarks in the past about her home country. It is no secret that celebrities produce silly comments and that many of them are detached from reality. Indeed one could argue that their influence is waning after their overwhelming support for remaining in the EU and Hillary Clinton failed to prevent Brexit and Trump respectively. These attacks should not stifle free speech, for that is what the attackers possibly want. But this is not the time to highlight celebrities' hypocrisy over their liberal views.
We are all united in our grief over the victims, both dead and hopefully still alive. This should be the focus of people's social media statuses, people like 8-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos who lost her life whilst living it to the full.
Georgina Callander was a passionate Ariana Grande fan, and she perished watching the popstar she loved. There are appeals spreading throughout social media pleading for help to find those still missing. 59 people were injured, fighting for their lives. What about them? Have they been forgotten as people take to their keyboards to blame Miss Grande?
It is disappointing that during moments like this, people use them for their own political or personal capital. Voltaire once said he would die for people's right to free speech, but he wouldn't just detest what many social media users have said if he were alive today; he would condemn it. He'd probably wonder what society has come to with a new generation of keyboard warriors.
