Entry #7 was all about the whole Jaebum scandal that was rocking the internet. I thought it was really bad then, what with talk of peititions calling for suicide, etc.
Well, I woke up this morning, checked some blogs, and learned that Jay has officially left 2PM.
First of all, I think Jay definitely needed to spend some time out of the spotlight. The official position as of yesterday had been that 2PM’s activities would be cancelled and basically, he would just be spending his time out of the public eye. This would’ve given some time for netizens to calm down and for this scandal to go away. I can understand Jay going back to America for a bit just to get out of that harmful environment. But I will be honest, I was disappointed that Jay decided to leave 2PM altogether. Jay was the leader of 2PM, he should be bringing 2PM together, not leaving 2PM behind in fragments. And regardless of whether he was leader or not, I feel like it didn’t require such an extreme action of leaving altogether for Jay to get his career back. If he had just waited it out, things would’ve been fine. And I would still have my whole 2PM to love and fangirl over. I understand what Jay’s doing, but it just struck me as running away, and it made me sad that it affected him to such an extent. But I, of course, may not know all the details, and if Jay felt that leaving the group was going to be best for him, then I support him all the way.
But the issue didn’t stop there.
Apparently, one of the netizens who had revealed the MySpace comments released an apology letter. A lot of the comments that I’ve been reading on the English blogs are saying things about how the apology is weak and some have even been as extreme as saying that the apology won’t be accepted and that netizen should go die.
Hypocritical, now that you think about it, huh?
NOBODY has the right to go tell somebody that they should take their own life. Life is the most precious thing we have and regardless of how horrible you think a person is, you don’t have a right to tell them that they don’t deserve to live. I wonder if any of the people who are telling the netizen to go die have experience somebody close to them dying? By suicide? Yeah, I had a friend pass away just months ago after committing suicide. Do they know what kind of a heartwrenching impact that was? What right do they have to hope for that much pain? That netizen is a PERSON. They have friends and family who care about them.
Telling that netizen to go kill herself is the same thing as the antis who had signed the suicide petition for Jay. It’s the exact same thing. Do these commenters know that netizen personally? No. Do the antis know Jay personally? No. Does either side have a right to demand a death? NO.
Yes, the netizen did wrong. And yes, Jay did wrong, too. But both sides have realized the consequences and have made apologies. Just like with Jay, this all needs to stop at the apology.
What’s done is done, right? That netizen had a hand in starting the controversy with Jay. But lots and lots of people also participated and made it into the big deal it became. That netizen isn’t solely responsible, although she does obviously have SOME responsibility. There’s nothing that can be done to undo her actions, so what needs to be done now is forgive and work towards making sure that netizens realize the consequences that can occur so that this kind of thing will not happen again.
I have to be honest. I’m disgusted with the audacity of people on both sides playing with people’s lives.
I guess this leads to the topic of how vicious the internet can be. Because of the anonymity that the internet provides, people feel like they have the right to say things that they would never dare say in real life. Also added on top of that is that because it’s the internet and it’s communication by the written word, tones may not be conveyed accurately and comments can end up being hurtful.
A less extreme example: I think I was a sophomore in high school when a family friend of mine said that I looked similar to this one female Korean actress. And so I went on to the biggest English internet forum for Korean entertainment and posted a topic with a picture of my head photoshopped onto the body of the actress and put it side-by-side with the original picture. I was relatively new to the internet fandom and I didn’t realize that I shouldn’t have done any Photoshopping at all, even though all I did was turn the head and put it on top. A lot of people were just like, “No. You don’t look like her.” which is fine, though obviously, a little bit hurtful to a 15-year-old girl. But I distinctly remember that there was this one person who posted TWICE saying in all caps how I was REALLY UGLY and things like that. Looking back, whoever that person was, it’s actually more pathetic that she felt the need to come back to the topic more than once and say that I was really ugly. In real life, you would never tell somebody that you don’t even know that they were really ugly with that much emphasis.
Anyway. The internet is full of immature people, and even with anyone, the internet unleashes a different mindset where things can be far more hurtful than it seems.
Regardless, I wish Jay the best of luck and I hope that people on the internet can take this to improve and make sure this doesn’t happen again.
