I am one of those people who like going to bed with my phone within arm’s reach. Sometimes I even wake up in the middle of the night and start looking for my phone under the sheets. You would say I am one of the many people addicted to their phones.
Tonight I woke up around 03:00 hrs and for
some reason I could not go back to sleep. So I picked up my phone and started
surfing the internet. I started by logging into my Twitter account. As I
scrolled through the news feed, I saw a twit that caught my attention.
“This incredible video captures moments
before the death of an Arms Instructor. Do not miss out on this chilling
video.”
And at the bottom was a link inviting me to
click on it.
As far as I know, anything that is
described to be chilling has the effect of causing slight fear. I started imagining what could have happened
to the Arms Instructor. Did he accidentally shoot himself or was he shot by one
of his trainees? Whatever the reason, what could be so awesome about this video
that I should not miss out?
There have been a lot of videos of people
being killed ruthlessly being circulated around the social networks and most if
not all of them are so cruel and vile. Have we gone to the extent of enjoying
death? Is watching people dying now part of our entertainment? We must as well
go to a war zone and sprawl around on the beach watching soldiers shooting each
other and stabbing each other with bayonets while we shout “Oh look at that.
That’s awesome.”
Should I click on this link or not?
My finger hovers over the link on the touch
screen ready to click. All of a sudden, I start feeling like I am about to
travel back in time to watch a death match between gladiators at one of the
Roman arenas. I can almost smell the stench of blood on the sands and hear the
screaming of an excited crowd yearning to see a life being snuffed out.
My hand hesitates. Maybe I should not click
on this link.
I snapped out of the Roman era and my
mind’s pages flip back to the present time going one year back. Someone sent me
a video on WhatsApp. In that video, there was a group of Arab men clad in black
and armed with Ak47 rifles. They were shooting at a few unarmed men whose hands
were tied behind them.
It is a short video lasting about 3 minutes
but many people that I showed the video could not finish watching all of it
because it is so gruesome, especially when one of the gunmen takes out a knife
and starts cutting off the head of one of the men who to me seemed to be slightly
conscious.
That video left a bad taste in my mouth and
I felt like throwing up the whole day. I don’t want to have that feeling again.
The last time I felt like that was many years ago when I was a teen. A man
killed himself by hanging himself on a tree in our neighbourhood. When the body
was discovered in the morning, a lot of people went to watch.
Out of curiosity, I also decided to go and
see what was happening but after seeing that body hanging on a tree like that,
my day was completely spoilt. I could never get rid of the image from my mind
and I also had this feeling like I was going to throw up at any time.
I certainly don’t want to have that feeling
again. There is nothing interesting in watching someone dying. I guess this is
one reason why on television they warn us in advance before showing us a
footage containing gruesome images.
I would not be surprised if there are so
many people out there who like watching that kind of footage. If we can have
people who can behead other human beings without remorse like they were just
swatting a fly, then we definitely expect to have people who enjoy watching death
but I am not one of them.
I am not going to click on this link.
Image courtesy of farconville / freedigitalphotos.net
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