Who made it a norms? Even when people cry, they still carry their phone to record themselves crying.
In the jet age that we are, even before you blink, people are already bringing your attention or calling or messaging you because the mistake you made has gone viral and now, the soul called infamous" public apology video" is now the order of the day—where is it either done in a dimly light or dark room with a honest and sincere look with the phone set before you and the first statement that comes out of your mouth is, "hmmmmm....I am deeply sorry..." Excuse you, sorry for what exactly? Anyways, this kind of apology always gets people's attention but not all are ready to forgive or neither forget because the internet always brings out memories even from the dark ages.
Over the past few years, I have seen series of all sorts of apology videos ranging from celebrities down to internet users, some which I say are genuine, some for clout chasing. What fuse me most is rather for the speaker to take genuine and sincere action or make a real change, most of them are bothered about their looks and the subtle backlash they throw while making the apology video. When you have done something wrong, violated others right, done something unethical, a apology video might not totally rewrite the wrong expecially when you only pretend to take responsibility, gain more engagement, have people at your side to side your actions rather than being sincerely apologetic.
As for me, I get to know if someone is genuinely apologising for their actions by looking beyond their crocodile's tears because in the real sense of being sincerely apologetic, what happens next is taking action without giving a flimsy excuse, going straight to what you did wrong and make your ways right even after you might have made the video. If the apology results into more harm or silence, then in the first place, it was only to chase clout, and never a sincere apology to start with.
The social media is a place where everyone has access to and it has handed us the power to speak aloud and at the same time, it has given us the power to stage and perform. In this digital age that I said earlier, there is enough digital noise around us, and it is reducing our integrity and what we need is a real integrity not a digital noise integrity. Instead of engaging in wrong apologies, how about engaging in meaningful conversation, donating if we have and doing volunteering works. Because to me, apologies should not just be about our spoken words, it should be lived even in our actions and daily life.
We are all humans and it is bond that mistakes should happen, but we can only get healed when we take genuine accountability for our actions and we live through that honest change that we promised. If all this are not taking into actions, an apology video will only become a normal thing people do just to gain attention with the trending hashtags and no genuine sincerity behind it.
Image created by MetaAi
Thanks for reading.