EDITORIAL - Unqualified conclusions go viral anew

The problem with the unrestrained ability of just about anyone to post just about anything on social media reared its ugly head again when somebody claiming to be the uncle of a baby who died recently in a government hospital went to town with allegations against the doctors who attended to the baby. According to the "uncle," the doctors used the baby to practice their medical skills.

Like a fire alarm, the allegations need to be responded to, regardless of whether they turn out to be false or not. Such matters leave no room for discretion. But here is the problem. Once posted and disseminated, damage is instantaneous. It does not matter if an allegation is determined later to be false and unfounded. No rectification of an untruth can undo the instant harm that reputations suffer from its publication.

While we commiserate with the family of the baby, it truly has to be asked how the uncle came to the conclusion that his nephew was just being used by doctors to practice their medical skills? Does he have any medical skill himself to be able to say what he said with seeming authority? If certain results did not measure up to his expectations, did that make his assumptions correct as they were?

Clearly, there are other means by which unmet expectations can be clarified. Or complaints aired. There are processes by which misunderstandings and misappreciations can be ironed out. Through these internal processes, it will be laid bare where the mistakes or shortcomings, if any, have been made. Through these processes can problems be ironed out.

On the other hand, if these processes fail, there are other processes as well to be taken outside the ambit of the hospital that can still serve the purpose of the complaint without having to unduly harm anyone, especially if the harm is undeserved. These should have been availed of first before going to social media because there, in the vast expanse of often-anonymous cyberspace, any claim can gain a foothold, no matter how feeble or preposterous.

In the anonymity of cyberspace, everyone becomes more courageous and brave than they truly are, especially since people do not have to identify their real selves. Some may come right out with it by being simply anonymous. But others can just manufacture names. Such anonymity-driven bravado pulls out all the stops, kicks away all reservations. There is no responsibility and accountability that await any post.

There is no denying the great benefits social media has given society. Many things that did not seem possible then are possible now. Life has been made a lot easier with it. Great conveniences have been enjoyed as a result of it. But there is always the dark side of the coin. And it is this dark side that is wiping out all the gains. To make matters worse, society still has not learned to take social media responsibly, or give it the respectability it sorely needs.