Active Minds - Trial By Social Media

  Active minds are from Scarborough and formed in 1986 from the ashes of S.A.S. (Speak Against Society). They've a lengthy back catalogue, mainly self released on their own Loony Tunes label. I played a song last year on the show from their Freedom Of The Borough ep but when I checked back I found I'd not featured them on here yet. That's going to change today as they've got a new album out called Religion Is Nonsense. It's available on 10" vinyl and digitally :  https://activeminds1.bandcamp.com/album/religion-is-nonsense

  The music is hard hitting punk rock, the lyrics are political and touch on religion, the political gains to be made by keeping people fearful of foreigners, kids on prescription drugs, kids with their childhoods cut short, mouthy bigots etc. One of the songs is a Discharge influenced lament about stamping boots, starving children and poisoned rivers which ends by asking why we can't have a peaceful future where everyone has what they need to live a happy life. For the answer to that last question the other songs on the album provide plenty of reasons why it's unlikely everything will urn out rosy. The band hold a mirror up to society and the reflection isn't pretty.

  And there's the song you'll find below which the band describe thus :

Social media may have been created as a tool to help bring people together, but it doesn’t seem that it’s creating a lot of social harmony. The ability to connect easily with so many strangers creates opportunities for anonymous acts of mental cruelty. 
Around half of all teenagers have experienced online bullying, and more than a third have been the victim of online threats. 
The effects of online abuse can be deep and long-lasting – leading to anxiety, depression and, in the most extreme examples, suicide attempts. Yet, too often, the perpetrators are divorced from the results on their victims. They may even think they’re being humorous, but there’s nothing funny about being publicly ridiculed or belittled. 
The modern world is one in which kids have very little choice about whether or not they interact with social media. To opt out is to virtually cut yourself off from your peers. But should social interaction have to mean living in fear of being mentally and verbally abused online? Has society really become that unkind?

  It's called Trial By Social Media....

These days it’s easy to accuse. It’s easy to abuse. 
You can hide behind anonymity so there’s nothing much to lose. 
These days some people are so vile – spreading so much hateful bile. 
There’s an outlet for these comments that are really not worthwhile. 

From vicious scorn to revenge porn – it’s a trial by social media. 
They’ll make you wish you’d never been born – it’s a trial by social media. 
Kids today grow up so fast in a world of social media. 
How long do you think you’d last in a trial by social media? 

These days young people get so stressed, and some get so depressed. 
It’s hard to cope with all the things they mentally ingest. 
These days there’s bullying online – it happens all the time. 
Do we have to wait ‘til kids self-harm before we draw the line? 

Small minds are turned on others to make their own lives feel less small. 
Do they think about the consequence of what they do at all? 
Some may think they’re funny, but do they think of the effect 
That their words may have on those whose reputations have been wrecked?