After watching Survivor: Vanuatu last night, I logged onto the MediaCorp Forums to find the Singapore Idol forum flooded with people. Expectedly, they were all here to let out their grievances (and partly because the official SI forum on starhub.com was down). There was so much swearing, so much anger, so much pain and so much unkind criticism that I couldn't bear to read the posts any longer. I posted the following long message before going to bed:
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Sigh...where should I start? From the point when I was watching the Results show. I watched it from a friend's house (as we were celebrating his birthday). When the results were announced, I was probably the only one in the house who was not surprised. At all.

Let's see some of the things that have happened on this very active forum (was quite shocked to see so many people even at this hour; but then again, I'm one of them, aren't I?):

• The most prominent was the cursing and cussing from users when Jessea went out and not Jerry. Some felt it was interesting to fill the whole page of posts with long posts which basically say one vulgar thing, or posting a few threads which say the same thing too.
  
• Some immediately accused Singaporeans to be racist. I didn't see how this assumption started, except from a topic few weeks ago about Jessea not having the edge because of her previous Canadian status.
  
• Sweeping statements swept the board. "SINGAPOREANS ARE TONE-DEAF!!!!!" one screamed. Wow, the poster is so brave as to admit that he/she is tone-deaf too.
  
• Some called SI a 'failure' because Jessea went out. This seems strangely familiar.
  

From these, I derived a few learning lessons:

• Be polite, clean and law-abiding. People often mistake freedom of speech to be that 'we are free to speak'. Never forget the word 'responsibly'.
  
• As my Maths teacher used to say, 'never assume as it will make an *ahem* out of "u" (you) and "me"'. Treat rumours as rumours until there's concrete evidence.
  
• Be a little cleverer in posting statements that may come across as sweeping. You don't want to end up pointing the finger at yourself.
  
• Conclusions are best made at the end of experiments. Those who called SI a failure are probably fortune tellers. They'll probably be able to tell us where the 11 finalists will end up in 3 years' time accurately.
  

My take on why this had happened started way before the Spectaculars began and I predicted it to happen. Remember a famous person from AI3 called LA TOYA LONDON? Most people said (and quite confirmed) that her departure was due to complacent fans who assumed others will vote more for her since she was so good. I predicted the same would happen in SI to Jessea (though I didn't expect it to be so soon).

Don't take it too much to heart. What matters more is that life goes on (at least a little differently now) and not stop to curse and swear because something went wrong.
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What struck me as saddening is that young Singaporeans are growing to become a bunch of people who rely on spouting vulgarities to let off their anger. I don't deny that when I get EXTREMELY ANGRY I will let off a few words too. People, we're a long way from the 'G' word.