Sorry

In this time of media, people say and do things that they regret. Nowadays, something a person says can be spread, misinterpreted and hated all in the span of a day. Because of this, when people in high positions make a mistake, their audience and influence are widespread. To help their careers and own sanity, many people take to the internet and voice their apologies into a video. Many of the times, it is accepted and praised for its integrity. Other times, however, it can bury a person even deeper in their mistake.

In many cases an apology video is meant to get the worst of the backlash off of them, to placate the people against them. A huge problem of today’s media surrounding apology videos is it is now seen as a way to complain about their treatment and whine that they don’t deserve the hate instead of addressing the original problem.

For instance, earlier this year a certain Youtuber was found to have previously tweeted some very very racist remarks. They were old tweets that could only be found if a person really searched for them, so the youtuber believed she was safe. Of course, this is the internet and nothing is ever truly forgotten.

When the mistake was brought to her attention, she made a video of her crying (seemingly faking) and whining about all of the things that have gone wrong since the scandal. She apologized for about a minute of the video while the rest of it just made her look worse. She never even truly admitted to her mistake, saying that she merely retweeted something offensive, when it was clearly written by her.

Apologies, when done right can really extinguish any of the fire threatening a person. However, when done wrong, it does little more than throwing a small bucket of water on an inferno. Then, if the things that they said in an apology turn out to be lies it is like throwing a grenade onto a campfire.

We have in our history seen people absolutely destroy themselves on a horrible apology video. The best example I can think of right now is with former President Bill Clinton. He said, on a world stage, that he did not have sexual relations with a certain White House staff personnel. Instead of squashing a rumor, he instead ruined his career and became the first president impeached during his service to the nation.

To be clear, apologies are now becoming a necessary part of our daily online lives. People have to be careful what they say and how they say it because the odds of someone misinterpreting your words are astronomical.