Links between mental health, social media and broadcasting

The son of a Yorkshire miner, he recalls that his father never lost his temper once in his life.

“He was the kind of bloke who would solve disputes by being kind,” says Parky.

Aside from the notion that such a control of temper would admittedly be against the human nature of most of us, the idea of kindness seems outdated ¬– quaint, even.

Like empathy for others, honesty and integrity, kindness in this day and age can be scoffed at in the aggressive, harsh world of the angry keyboard warriors of social media. As is humility; even if the poet, Tennyson, described it as the “highest virtue”.

As a society, are people now nastier than ever, as Facebook, Twitter and the rest are inhabited by racists, misogynists and base abusers of all kinds in a sewer of commentary? And they’re getting away with it.

The Olympic Games in Tokyo have given commentators such as Piers Morgan a platform for his invective against certain elite sportspeople in the public eye.

A few months ago, Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka pulled out of media interviews at the French Open to protect her mental health.

But Morgan called her “an arrogant spoiled brat whose fame and fortune appears to have inflated her ego to gigantic proportions”, and accused her of “weaponising mental health”.

Spoiled brat? Inflated ego? He could be talking about himself, surely?

Remember – this is the man who also describes Meghan Markle as “Princess Pinocchio” over claims, among other things, that she’d contemplated suicide.

And now, at the Olympic Games, his latest target is American gymnast Simone Biles, who withdrew from certain events to take care of her mental health.

Morgan went further, with a hard-man routine about only gold mattering at the Olympics; indeed, in sport generally, only winning matters.

It’s a debate that seems contrived, but if its aim is to gain attention, it works.

But remember, never get down and wrestle with a pig; you both get dirty, and the pig loves it. Especially when he makes a fortune out of it.

Back in 1908, in a sermon during the London Olympics, the following quote seemed to sum up the spirit of the modern games: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

A century on, rampant commercialism and a harsh world seemed to have rendered fairness and sportsmanship obsolete, not just at the Games, but in all areas of sport where eyewatering amounts of money have skewed values.

Let’s not forget that Morgan has nearly eight million followers on Twitter. And that after his petulant walk-out on GMB, the station’s viewing figures plummeted, and there’s talk of him coming back.

If we complain about his abrasive style of broadcasting, we have to acknowledge it’s what a lot of people want. We seem to be hardwired to enjoy watching a fight.

And I concede that during last year, Morgan was leading the way in robustly calling the Boris Johnson government to account when many others were letting them off the hook.

Then again, do people really care if government ministers are consistently economical with the truth?

The essayist Michel de Montaigne said: “Lying is a terrible vice, it testifies that one despises God, but fears men.”

And yet, even though Peter Stefanovic’s vlog shows the Johnson people lying over and over, the British people put them in power.

All this debate may be considered robust and on the right side of the line, just, although I would argue that Morgan’s reckless disregard of mental health issues is very dangerous in the pressurised environment of today’s world.

The daily struggles that people of all ages go through are tough, and much more needs to be done to address mental health issues.

Such a lack of empathy is symptomatic of a modern phenomenon of angst in daily discourse. And that leads to many people crossing the line.

Northern Ireland journalists – for example, Allison Morris, Amanda Ferguson and Patricia Devlin – seem to be particular targets for trolls, attracting some of the most threatening and abhorrent posts. Note: all women.

Women in politics also seem to be singled out for vile abuse online, and the MP Carla Lockhart has been courageous in bringing this to public attention; it’s an issue that crosses party lines.

Arlene Foster has been forthright in highlighting social media abuse as well, having suffered from it.

Some of what her family had to endure was horrendous, and now that she has a platform to shine a light on this, she is quite rightly calling on the social media companies to do more, especially in denying the trolls anonymity.

While more regulation and action is needed to protect people, we should also remember that the majority of us don’t resort to this disgusting abuse, and we also need to play our part in making this a better and more caring society.

What about ‘the new normal’ when Covid was supposed to give us a new perspective on life?

A society where humility and sincerity are not for ‘wimps’ who are walked over.

Who wants an increasingly hostile society, where public discourse – especially on social media – becomes toxic, and winning in life can often mean being caustic and aggressive; a world where competitive people have all the answers?

So are compassion and kindness old-fashioned and signs of weakness? Surely not.

Humility remains not just an admired virtue, but one with benefits. Philosophers, psychologists and many religions place a high value on humility’s down-to-earth modest respect for others.

Humility shouldn’t be sneered at, and some psychologists refer to it as a “quiet ego”; an inner confidence which can be powerful, and which achieves more for the individual and society at large.

They say that humble people are better listeners, are better able to cope with the anxiety of their own mortality, and have the clarity of thought and strength of mind to achieve their goals without shouting their opponents down.

Psychologist Pelin Kesebir says “Humility involves a willingness to accept [the] self’s limits and its place in the grand scheme of things”.

And Nelson Mandela said that “great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility”.

We can be firm in our opinions and robust in our discourse, we can be angry at injustice, but we can do it respectfully and still be strong.

As the saying goes: “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.”