I posted the other day about an unfortunate event in the Great British bake-Off, an unfortunate event of less than world-shattering importance, where someone inadvertently left someone else’s ice-cream out of the freezer. It made dramatic viewing in its nice genteel Bake-Off way, but the furore which erupted over freezer-gate, or ice-cream-gate, or bin-gate (where the ice cream ended up) the furore has become ludicrous.
However, what don’t understand is how vile and horrible people have been on social network sites about the person who took the ice-cream out of the freezer… it was a competition about making cakes, nothing life or death about it. It was all tense and exciting with the bakers going mad to finish their tasks and the venom and vitriol directed at the contestant was extraordinary, it was horrible! To start with, we the viewers didn’t see the whole thing, we only saw what the editors wanted us to see, we don’t know the people involved, only the glimpses we’ve seen on the programme, which only lasts an hour and involves the twelve contestants, two judges and two presenters… and there is always a bit in the middle away from the tent about some other baking-related subject.
There was a very good article in today’s paper by Cristina Odone about how to deal with on-line trolls… however I don’t think the person involved in bin-gate will necessarily be able to deal with the unpleasant and horrible people who’ve made comments about her in the same way:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/cristinaodone/100284226/mary-beard-is-a-genius-at-disarming-her-critics-and-i-should-know/
Lois Elsden 