Hey blog. How’s it going? Sorry it’s been a while since my last post. I was last here in September but I’ll be honest I haven’t had a lot of burning desire to write much in recent months. Life just happens I guess and I think my focuses have probably been elsewhere but I do take comfort knowing my little blog is always here to come back to and is a space to share thoughts and opinions on topics I think are important or matter to me. So thanks for clicking on over if you’re reading this and I hope anything I say in this post can bring just a slither of inspiration or hope in some way.
I’m sat here on a very windy, rainy evening (storm dennis causing pure chaos in the UK right now) and I am glued to the incredibly sad news story surrounding TV host Caroline Flacks death. I feel compelled to talk about this.
Quite frankly, at this point, it’s just another repeated celebrity death following the same narrative of media and celebrity ‘pressures’ and I’m honestly so sad and so sick of having to keep watching these type of events unfold. Especially as they surround the topic of suicide and mental health.
I have never been a watcher of Love Island or much of Caroline Flack but she has undeniably been a very prominent TV personality during the last few years and is very well known and talented. In recent weeks, her public life and personal struggles have been documented in the press incessantly and she’s been absolutely hounded for her every action. I don’t know the ins and outs of Caroline Flacks life and I certainly don’t aim to speculate but what I do know is that I’m so very tired of seeing these type of stories repeated in the news. And that goes for non celebrities too. There are so many sad stories about every day people, especially young people, taking their lives because of online trolls or cyber bullying. What makes Caroline’s death so sad is the fact that we’ve witnessed the tragedy unfold over a number of weeks and now to see the end result is just tragic. It’s probably a conclusion we should’ve seen coming from the start, alas, all we can do now is reflect.
No one will ever truly understand what was going on in her life off the TV but to know that relentless media pressure has very likely been a contributing factor to her death is the most heartbreaking. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the events that have unfolded publicly in her life recently and for us to blindly ignore the actions of the UK media and press would be wrong.
I’m getting really sick and tired of living in a world where all we see is trolling and bullying online. The media still have legal rights to publish hateful articles and criticise people’s appearance and follow them and stick cameras in their faces whenever they please. How are we still allowing it to THIS DAY?!? We all saw the tragedy of Princess Diana’s death in the 90s and the clear risk of press intrusion. They quite literally hunted her down and caused her death most would argue. And here we are 20 or so years later and now instead of the physical hounding of people, it’s the mental. And it’s all done behind a fucking computer screen or a phone. And to make it worse, not only do the trash magazines and tabloids write even more frequently on their sites…oh no….now the general public think they can just follow in the footsteps and troll everyone and anyone online?!?! Keyboard warriors are amongst us and hate is on the rise. I think it’s fine that we all have opinions and everyone has a platform or an outlet to express that but when the opinions turn into forms of mockery, abuse and pure hatred (mostly anonymous too) then it cannot he tolerated. Again, I ask, HOW are we still allowing this behaviour? Why are there no laws against this shit? It’s diabolical and I feel like it’s just normalised now. Social media execs and CEO’s and government and police should take more action to monitor trolling activity. In my opinion they have blood on their hands. Sanctions or rules should be placed against newspapers and media who continuously hound others. Just take Meghan Markle as a prime example. Good on her for taking a stand and heading the fuck out of this stupid country attacking her day in day out. Who can blame her?!
It really is a very sad state of affairs when someone’s life is wasted away in a mental health crisis where people in the world could’ve chosen to be kinder and you never know, it might’ve helped poor Caroline Flack. And it’s the case all over. Anyone who deals with suicidal thoughts or is mentally struggling knows how far kindness goes. I know first hand. I was once in a very sad and dark place not knowing who to turn to or what to do and I tried to take my own life. Maybe this is why I feel so strongly about writing on this topic. I was very fortunate and lucky that I survived and came out much stronger on the other side. I was alone in those dark moments but when I came out the other side and received kindness and support from those who cared for me, it made a world of difference. Even now in general every day life, whenever someone is kind to me or gives a kind gesture, it makes my entire week!! Someone in my work recently got me the sweetest little gift. It was a plaque to stick on my desk which said “Free hugs here if you’re having an off day”. They thought of me when they saw it as I had recently offered another work colleague a hug when it looked like they needed it during a bad time. And the fact that someone recognised that and passed on the kindness really meant a lot to me. These are the kind of things the world needs more of!
It’s not hard to be kind. It’s not hard to share a smile. Being kind doesn’t even mean you have to go above and beyond yknow? Sometimes it’s just staying silent instead of saying something mean. I often feel this way when having conversations with people. Even if someone’s being arsey or they might be chatting pure shit (in my opinion)… I don’t agree in voicing a negative and potentially harmful,mean comment onto them. I try to remind myself that it’s better to stay civil and kind than to be nasty. We’re not perfect humans and sometimes we slip up and say things we don’t mean in the moment but if we take at least small baby steps to show kindness and reciprocate it when it’s given then I do truly believe the world would be a better place. I’ve always preached this message and I will continue to do so until the day I die.
Be nicer and kinder to someone today. You don’t know who’s life you could change.
Thanks for reading and ciao for now xo
Megan Wigley 