OPINION: Why images of naked people posted from these towns diminish us all

A few weeks back, video images of a naked man were created and posted online. There was one from the town centre in Naas and another from Prosperous.

Before that, a couple of years ago, a video of a woman with no clothes was uploaded and shared online. She was running along a footpath in the main street in Newbridge.

It’s not that these are developments unique to Kildare; it could, of course, have happened anywhere.

Neither is the instant availability of the material surprising in the world we live in.

Most folk have access to a smartphone and a certain percentage of them are just not very bright, a little vacant in the social responsibility department.

And, worst of all, have no way, apparently, of addressing an obvious absence of emotional intelligence.

Not much is known about the people who were filmed; other than they did no harm that we know of.

The woman had been in a medical setting prior to the incident.

Subsequently she attended in court but not as a defendant per se, but for a family law matter relating to a child.

We can’t be sure of what led to any of these events, but in the case of what happened in Newbridge at least, it’s a reasonable assumption that there are mental health issues at play here.

We know more about the fragility of mental health now than we ever did. To have mental health problems - and swathes of society do - is thankfully much less of a taboo subject.

And this largely down to people being more willing and being encouraged to talk about what’s affecting them. These include many from the worlds of music, arts, politics and the media coverage it all gets.

The more open we are to listening, learning and articulating, the better we as a community will be.

“He suffers with his nerves” is a term sometimes used to try to describe someone who is struggling.

It is a fabulously vague and oblique use of words.

But we all know what is meant and it sometimes has to suffice in the absence of greater insight - and all the more so if it speaks to a reluctance to pry into the affairs of someone in pain.

Given that we know so much more now from school onwards, it's difficult to understand how heartless people can be. 

Many of those who make these videos are twentysomethings. They are the products of an environment in which mental health is much more to the fore than it was for previous generations.

The same applies to those who share the images - because they want to impress their mates.

Equally, people coming across serious road accidents often make a video and share it in its full horror - rather than simply minding their own business, as if a Hollywood career awaits these Francis Ford Coppola wannabes.

Smartphones are powerful instruments in other ways too, like as a means of accessing useful information.

When they are misused in this way we are all diminished because, as the poet said, we are all human.

All we can do is offer some suggestion to the village idiot who feels the need to reach for their phone if they happen upon somebody else’s misfortune.

If you cannot or feel unable to offer some help, at least be on your way with your phone still in your pocket in the grateful knowledge that you’re already less of a clown.