Recently, I found a tweet on Twitter that had been retweeted multiple times and had been trending (I cropped out the author of the post in order to spare them from further unkindness and ridicule). It was a girl’s opinion on the alleged violence that ensued between Johnny Depp and his wife Amber Heard. The post read as the following:

The author of the post later claimed that she was joking and that sarcasm should be OK. There is a fine line between being funny and being rude. But, I would ask her, is that something to joke about? We wouldn’t joke about murder or rape, so why do we joke about domestic violence? I know that the story behind the tweet is still up in the air, and it's sad if it’s true. But I’m here to address the tweet itself.

To boil down her “joke,” the author, in essence, is claiming that Amber Heard should stand there and take whatever she is given because the man on the other end is Johnny Depp. It doesn’t matter if the man or woman on the other end is a celebrity, a relative, or a stranger. It is never OK.

This trivial joking about grave subjects is nothing new in this digital day and age, but it has grown in its frequency recently. We live in an age where people believe that anonymity covers a multitude of sins. People sit behind their computer or phone screens expressing their feelings on an issue or a current event with a confidence that they would not find in a real life experience. This newfound confidence through social media has allowed for taboo things to become common conversation and even the subject of crude jokes. Anonymity has become a dangerous tool for opinions, whether educated or not, to be voiced among a pliable generation. It has become an unchecked reality that has allowed things, such as this tweet, to be produced.

These “jokes” are viewed by an audience that include rape survivors, family members of a murder victim, as well as men, women, and young people who have known or know someone who has and, or, continues to experience domestic violence. When writing for a larger, or even a global audience, you have to be aware of the makeup of your potential audience not only racially, economically, religiously, but experience wise as well. You never know when you could unintentionally, or intentionally, trivialize someone’s traumatic experience just for a few likes or retweets. To you, it may be funny, but, for someone else, it may be reliving a living hell or denouncing the gravity of that awful event.

Yes, I am aware that the author of the post intended it to be nothing more than a joke, but I don’t think that she knew the immense attention it would receive either. That is the scary thing about the internet: lies, truths, news, and personal information spread like wildfire. Our journals are Facebook posts and tweets limited to 140 characters. They are small blurbs on the internet that could move a nation, even the world. We have a larger audience than we intend when we post on the internet. My challenge to both myself and everyone out there is to be careful about what we post.

You never know who will see it and you most certainly never know what someone has been through.