Saturday, March 26, 2011
Facebook: An Unintended Haven for Bullies
The preceding was a funny video admonishing Facebook users against poor social media etiquette. I have often wondered at the sometimes shocking displays of...well meanness that have taken place on social networks. Social media, while posessessing the potential to foster human connection on a scale yet to be seen has the particularly nasty side effect of enabling some of the worst behavior imaginable. Social networks have given bullies a whole new venue to exact their torture. What is it about the screen/keyboard/avatar combination that so often divorces us from our best selves?
I believe it has something to do with a lack of true accountability. Not that status updates are anonymous, as we all know they're not. Not even close. They are, however, quite different than person to person interactions. Hence it is remarkably easy to talk nastily about a person when that person isn't physically present. It's a similar dynamic to trolling or comment flaming. Furthermore, I believe it emboldens the bully the larger their audience. Everyone knows how traditional bullying works. Cyber-bullying works essentially the same way except with a larger audience and even less accountability. There is however, evidence, which again makes me wonder at the growing incidence of cyber-bullying. If a public stream of harsh commentary is not evidence against a cyber bully then I don't know what is. At least the playground bully has plausible deniability (I'm sure I spelled that wrong.) working in their favor.
Anyway, these are a few of the things that ran through my mind while reading this week's assignments, particularly Emily Rutherford's blog, "Thoughts on Facebook and Identity." I guess since I had also just read a post on my friend's blog about a Facebook mean girl, and the death of kindness in general, and I was struck by the differences in the way social networks could be used and the reality of the way in which they too often are. I believe more thoughtful self reflection ala Rutherford may be in order. It is a "social" network after all. Shouldn't the rules of civilized "society" apply?
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I have an 11 year old sister and I have been cringing at the thought of her mentioning any social networking site b/c of examples like this. Do you think there are ways to reduce anonymity (if it leads to increased bully behavior) without also reducing privacy?
ReplyDeletei wonder if people understand how cyber-bullying will affect others in the years that follow. in high school, i dealt with the typical "mean girl" here and there. it comforted me to dream of the day that i could reinvent myself from nerdy/glasses wearing/meta mouthed/pizza faced high school wallflower to svelte, intellectual, bubbly, college co-ed. well, that was the hope anyway. had facebook been around back then, i doubt i would have been able to reinvent myself period.
ReplyDeleteall of this came back to me as i read rutherford’s blog. dealing with bitchy comments behind your back and to your face (i went to a girl's high school) is one thing. at least you know who you’re dealing with. but reading possible life-long reputation damaging online rhetoric is another. In the end, i’m grateful for being the age i am. high school was hard enough back in the analog days.
Does it count if I just say "Ditto" and "Amen" to everything Yvonne said?
ReplyDeleteMaybe there should be real videos like this made and shown in high schools. I mean they show videos about teen pregnancy and drunk driving, why not social networking consequences?
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