A young man breaking into a house and stealing two rings is not newsworthy. A young man getting caught for the burglary because he logged onto facebook while in the house and forgot to logout, well, that’s twitter trend material.
I do feel for the guy. He could probably overcome the stigma of felon and burglar, but it will be much more difficult to live past the reputation of really stupid burglar. Even his friends must be laughing. What kind of comments would he see on his status report if he were to check it now?
What makes this such a hot topic? It is funny, in a pathetic, tragic kind of way. But one reason it’s so funny, why we enjoy laughing at it so much, is because we are all so prone to moments of stupidity. True, not all of us will commit our stupid act while committing a felony. Maybe the worst outcome for some will be offending someone, or embarrassing ourselves in front of a crowd, or losing a great deal of money. Maybe you are the only witness to your greatest moments of stupidity. It doesn’t matter; we’ve all been there.
So why do we laugh at Mr. Parker? Because it is soothing to the soul to laugh at someone else, to be able to say, “at least I haven’t…” Is he able to laugh at himself, though? Will he ever? Will he tell his children this story, or will he hope the story burns out quickly and he can live it down?
I can’t answer for him. For us, though, when we are tempted to laugh at him (and I will admit, I did laugh), let’s stop a moment and direct the laughter back at ourselves, to remember the times we have made ridiculous mistakes, even if they are not as newsworthy. It is healthier for the soul to laugh at oneself, and fosters greater compassion and understanding for others.
Oh, and I’ve already searched for his facebook page but can’t find it, so don’t bother.
Comments
perhaps it says something about his generation and their addiction to the social network..."look what I'm doing now"
It is pretty sad that you get caught doing something illegal because you couldn't resist getting on someone's computer and getting on Facebook as if nothing wrong is going on at the time and not bother logging out of it. Society these days seems to have gotten into an all-time low. It is tempting to laugh at this person for making such a mistake, but I'm pretty sure that we all made mistakes just as bad or worse than what this person has done.
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