A video did the rounds on social media last week. It had all the elements required for maximum outrage: teenage girls with middle class Dublin accents; references to alcohol; blithe jokes about the one thing we have no sense of humour about.
It was a low moment in six months that haven’t exactly been a barrel of laughs – not because some bored teenagers made a video guessing which of their gang would be next to get Covid, but because of the ugly commentary it attracted. Sure, the video was in poor taste. They’re teenagers: poor taste is part of the job. But some of the comments were truly venomous, featuring the kind of nasty, sexualised insults that never seem to be directed at young men.
To be clear, Fianna Fáil TD for Clare Cathal Crowe has said he was not talking specifically about that video, but making a general point about a number of videos he had seen when he stood up in the Dáil this week. "In the past 48 hours, I saw a video on TikTok of a group of teenagers who held a Covid party and were having bets as to who would be the first to contract the virus. I think that's absolutely reprehensible, I think it's almost treasonous to the State at its time of need," he said.
“Their actions in trying to draw the Covid virus on to themselves and pass it on to others, I think it’s only a step or two away from being culpable for manslaughter.”
For the record, no Covid party was mentioned in the video. Still, those are inflammatory words from a public representative speaking in the Dáil. Treason, under the Irish Constitution, refers to “levying war against the State… attempting by force of arms or other violent means to overthrow the organs of government”. Nowhere, you won’t be surprised to learn, does it mention bored children trying to lighten the mood with an ill-judged internet game.
The most sensible reaction came from the HSE chief executive Paul Reid. "The misuse of social media can be so cruel to young people sometimes. We all likely did some things when younger that we regretted. Let's not publicly shame but redouble our efforts to communicate the dangers of this virus to everyone. Think mental health too," he tweeted.
He’s right about that. I can’t be the only adult of my generation relieved there were no phones around to record the so-called banter in the school playground during the Aids crisis of the 1980s.
Six months into the pandemic, our early state of constant hypervigilance has faded into one of hypersensitivity. Our umbrage radars are hovering permanently around “high dudgeon”. By all means, let the Golfgate 81 have your outrage. But leave the kids alone; they’ve had enough.
Leaving Cert
Even before the pandemic, teenagers were served up constant reminders that the world they were about to inherit was a crumbling wreck, that they would never be able to do the things their parents took for granted: rent somewhere to live in college; buy a house; start a family; plan for the future. Sorry honey, we shrunk your world and wrecked your planet.
This year’s Leaving Cert teenagers have been particularly hard hit. They were robbed of so many rites of passage, and subjected to months of angst and uncertainty before the exams were finally called off. Now they’re facing into a college life in which they may never set foot on campus. Let’s try to bear that in mind on Tuesday morning, when there is a fresh round of results night videos clamouring for your outrage on social media.
Stigmatising and shaming one another won't get us to the finish line any faster; it will just make for a far more turbulent path
Young people are an easy target, but they’re not a fair one. Despite all the scare stories about house parties, there’s nothing much to see here. For months and months, they did what was asked of them. They mostly stayed home, stuck indoors with the people whom they are developmentally primed to least want to be around.
Predictably, their mental health tanked. New research from Unicef this week found that Irish adolescents have one of the lowest rates of life satisfaction among the EU/OECD countries, at 72 per cent. Twenty eight per cent rated it at less than five out of 10. A Maynooth University survey of school leavers found 60 per cent had "poor" wellbeing. Nearly half reported high levels of depression and/or anxiety. In April, the CSO asked 18-34 year olds to rate their life satisfaction. Only one in 10 said it was high. Two years earlier, that figure was half.
Could the message be any clearer? Young people are in trouble. We need to stop demonising them. In fact, we need to stop casting about for new things to be outraged about generally. The list of targets since February is exhausting. The mid-term skiers. The Cheltenham crew. Joggers. House party goers. Meat plant operators. Youngsters necking shots or dancing on defibrillators. Mask refuseniks.
Research published last week by the ESRI found that one in three Irish people believe anyone with Covid-19 is to blame for contracting it and has either been reckless or careless. Substitute “norovirus” for Covid-19 there, and see how ridiculous that sounds. Now substitute “HIV” and see how far we’ve come. In case it’s not clear, there is mounting evidence to suggest the virus may be airborne. So unless you plan to stop breathing, there’s no guaranteed way to avoid it.
We’re in this for the long haul. Stigmatising and shaming one another won’t get us to the finish line any faster; it will just make for a far more turbulent path. Despite all the self-congratulations for the solidarity we’ve shown and the candles in the windows, I suspect this mid-pandemic period will one we look back on as a grim, sad, curtain-twitching period in Irish society.