Social
media is one of the best innovations of our time, but a lot of people tend to
abuse and misunderstand its power. According to Ditch the Label, a self-help
organization, 7 out of 10 young people have been victims of cyber bullying and 37%
of young people have experienced cyber bullying on a highly frequent basis. So
what’s going on? What makes a person feel comfortable with bullying someone
else on the internet? The answer is actually pretty obvious: it’s easier. It’s
so much simpler to sit behind a computer screen to attack someone than actually
doing it to their face. Psychology Today
released a great article in which it stated that one of the big reasons bullies
are more comfortable on the web is because “online interactions are devoid of
emotions.” So, to me, I feel like it gives people a sense of anonymity, which
in turn gives them the excuse to almost lose a little bit of their human
nature. When you can’t see the emotions of the person you are interacting with,
of course it’s going to be a heck of a lot easier to say horrible,
inappropriate things to them; it almost feels like you’re not even talking to
another person, you’re just typing words.
The specific
case that I want to talk about happened pretty recently, just right after New
Year’s. A woman went on a rant on Facebook after she felt like she wasn’t given
enough attention at a restaurant/bar when she was trying to pay her bill. The
reason that she wasn’t given full attention was because a separate older woman
had a heart attack, was thought to be dead, and employees were trying to help
the situation. Now, what happened with her Facebook jab at the restaurant is
the problem with a lot of controversial posts: the woman that went on the rant
was both misinformed and had jumped the gun on making a post. She was misinformed
because she had somehow thought that the woman who was thought to have been
dead was a druggie who had overdosed. She had jumped the gun on making the post
because if she had just waited, found out more information about the situation,
and cooled down a little bit then probably none of this would have happened.
After this woman had made the post, the managing partner of the restaurant gave
a response that pretty much told the woman that she was misinformed,
cold-hearted, and that her bill didn’t take precedence over a human life. All
of these posts then went viral. Since then, this woman has seen some major
backlash on many social media sites. Social media users have once again
absorbed the mob mentality with this situation, sending her death threats,
asking her employers to fire her, even mistakenly attacking someone who happened
to have the same name. Yes, what the woman had posted was absolutely despicable
and appalling, but that doesn’t give other people the right to publicly
persecute her and even try to ruin her personal life. How many of these persecutors
have posted something terrible on the internet that they most likely regret?
Probably the majority of them since they definitely aren’t afraid to say awful
things to this woman, even threaten to kill her. I really respect how the
managing partner responded; it may have been harsh (which the woman definitely
deserved), but he stood up for what was right in an appropriate manner. The people
on both sides of this situation need to learn a lesson from him, instead of
thinking they can say whatever they want just because they can.
The internet
is an awesome tool with so many positive benefits, but all of this cyber
bullying and people thinking they can attack others is both unethical and the
internet’s biggest detriment. Once something is put on the internet, you can’t
get rid of it nor can you take it back. Social media users desperately need to learn
how to use these sites with caution. People need to realize that there is an
actual living, emotional person on the receiving end of their bullying and harassment.
If you feel uncomfortable saying something to someone face to face, then it
also has no place on the web.
Sources:
I liked what you said that although the person wrote a harsh review, that it doesn't give those people who heard about the case the write to respond at harshly as they did. I read a article about a woman who as the same name as Holly Jones and received various threatening e-mail because they thought that it was the same Holly that posted the review. She was terrified at the threats and how cruel people can be with their words. It makes me sad that people think that it is okay to wish someone their death etc.
ReplyDeleteI also thought of cyber bullying, when I read about this case study. I think technically cyber bullying refers to youth and adolescents. Its crazy to me that stuff like this happens even with adults, and can sometimes even be more cruel and harsh than with teens!
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