janusthorn's blog post - Musings on stuff people say

Inspired by Persephone_Brown's wonderful date night blog (If you haven't read it - go there: she is a brilliant writer, I am a mere humble hack) I have been thinking about the comments people say in real life. In fact, it is a bit of a bug bear of mine.
The rise of social media seems to have given people the courage to say really offensive and nasty things online with, people think, no consequence. This is bad enough, especially given the awful stories you hear of cyber bullying. But, I have increasingly seen a trend of people carrying this into the real world. There is nothing new in that you might think, but I must say that, prior to the Internet, inappropriateness was generally the preserve of the drunk, the bully or the ignorant.
Now, I keep hearing people say the sort of thing they post of Facebook or Twitter to people's faces. It's like the filter is failing. As a reserved, stiff upper lip type, I never fail to be shocked by this. I do call people out on it too and most have the grace to be a little ashamed.
As the continuum of societal change constantly shifts, I do wonder where this will all end up going. I live in hope that this trend is replaced by a kinder one, but sadly, I suspect not. As somebody said in status land yesterday and I am totally in agreement with, if you can't think of anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.