by Keith Coburn

Created on: April 01, 2009   Last Updated: April 06, 2009

In this day and age, political correctness is in the forefront of everything we do. It seems as though we cannot even comment on the weather without someone somewhere being offended. On-line videos can be misconstrued very easily in the same way; something we may have intended to be a joke or a prank has potentially offended someone else and perceived to be harmful or hateful.

I just received and watched an on-line video called "The Octomom's Birth Video" it's a snippet from the Jimmy Kimmel show about Nadya Suleman giving birth. She seems to have taken top billing on all talk shows and also is in the press on a daily bases. I personally think it's a funny video but I cannot help but think that what may be funny to me may not be funny to someone else and beyond that may also be harmful.

When perception comes into play, I always look back to the scene in the movie Dead Poet Society when Robin Williams character John Keating has the kids in his class stand on their chairs to get a different view or perspective of their surroundings. That same premise needs to be used when making funny or joke type media for public viewing. Perception is everything and you need to be cognoscente of how people may perceive the content.

When media is posted we also need to understand how others will respond to it. Could you possible be posting something that could cause harm of some form to another? Suppose you post a video of your friend at a party drinking and acting like a fool, at that time you thought it was very funny, but what happens in the future if this same friend gets into a field where alcohol consumption is frowned upon. In this day in age having media on the Internet at our finger tips you can almost guarantee that this video would surface and have an adverse affect on your friend.

I believe that most forms of media perceived as funny that are posted are intended to be for entertainment purposes and are not meant to malicious. When posting though, we really need to "stand on your chair" to get a different perspective of the content we're about to post before posting it.

In today's world, we live in an environment where we really have and need to be sensitive to those around us. Honesty is a great thing but speaking our mind isn't a good thing if the word and or subject matter we use can be offensive. Understanding this can make our life and those around us a bit easier.

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