Cellphones and grandkids go together like a childhood favorite, peanut butter and jelly. We see those rectangular boxes held reverently in front of their faces, fingers flying furiously over a tiny keyboard and our feelings run the gamut. Why can’t they put the phones away and play with us or talk to us for a bit? Is there a magician inside mesmerizing them, making it impossible for them to tear the phone from their fingers? Or maybe we laugh recalling the things we did as children that drove our parents to distraction. Surely they will grow out of it someday and we will hold their attention once more.
Look around at those who have, indeed, grown up. How many of them continue to hold the magic box in front of their faces oblivious of anything else around them? How many of them run to take a picture instead of provide help when they observe an accident, someone being accosted, a crime taking place? How many, once the picture is taken, scurry to put that picture on Facebook, ahead of other bystanders, who are also clicking away manically with the phone camera? Does it bother us that we have exchanged helping our fellow human beings for exploiting them? Does it occur to us that while technology can be fun; used wrongly it can be dangerous, too? Perhaps the following story will bring much needed perspective to our obsession with cellphones and posting sites.
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They laughed as its life drained away. Passing it from hand to hand, they clicked time after time to have ‘selfies’ of their faces alongside the tiny creature. Its cries of terror grew weaker, but the monsters, so enamored with yet another chance to put their violent faces on a computer site, chose not to hear until it moved no more and made no sound. Then and only then, did they toss its corpse back into the ocean. The newborn dolphin’s body bobbed on the waves until the mother, broken hearted at her loss, pushed it further away from shore.
This scene jarred me fully awake when I opened my computer yesterday. A mass of uncaring degenerate people passed the body of a baby dolphin around as though it was an unfeeling piece of driftwood. Grinning fools that they were each jostled another to get a chance at killing the saltwater child. Did they see it that way?
No, they did not. Caught in the fad of the moment to put everything from the barf one threw up to a majestic piece of art on Facebook, they saw another chance to ‘go viral’. These days going viral seems to be more important than life itself as shown with the needless death of a baby dolphin.
Surely, out of the large crowd of fools, one stood for ‘saving the dolphins’ yet I saw no one begging for the dolphin’s life. I saw only selfish, mean, uncaring people who will call themselves humane even as they needlessly murder an innocent.
Am I angry? No, I am far past angry. I am dejected that we have sunk so low that showing things like this rank over saving human or animal. Pictures of vile kids cutting puppies in half with a sword washed upon the filthy shores of Facebook. They were so proud to have destroyed those puppies’ lives that they took pictures to share with the world.
These are only a couple of the horrors the demented put on the site.
One post showed Christ falling under the weight of the cross. The caption was, “If you would help him, write ‘amen’ in the comments. Dutifully, many wrote Amen and moved on. I did not, could not write Amen, because I did not believe for a moment that any of us would have run forward to help.
Remember at the time it happened only one man came forward and he was pushed back by the soldiers. Are we braver today? Braver? Not by a long shot. I cannot see anyone rushing forward to relieve our Lord of His burden though all He went through was for us.
What I can see, all too vividly, are thousands of people surging forward to capture His agony alongside their joyful faces in a ‘selfie’ and rushing to put it on Facebook ahead of anyone else.
Selfies are really Selfishes because they ignore the plight of anyone in the pictures, centering only on a few minutes of fame online. We strive to get the attention of millions of strangers instead of listening to our consciences. Sometimes I am no longer certain we even have those little voices that tell us right from wrong. To get the fickle love of strangers, we will toss friendships, morals, love, and kindness aside without another thought.
Does this sound like a post for younger people? If only that were true. Sadly, it applies to everyone under the spell of the cellphone who want to get in on posting fun. Please remember and try to get it through your children and grandchildren’s heads that cellphones can be useful, but they can also be deadly. If they disagree, show them the post on Facebook where a surging crowd killed a baby dolphin. No one showed remorse at the loss…except the baby’s mother.