Why these ‘Mean Girls’ apps should frighten women, too
Guys, check out this article:
“More often, Rumr and the rest of these apps are used for gossiping, bullying, and lying, which are all the more tempting in an identity-free, record-vanishing environment. There's science to it, which we've known for years (and no doubt the app founders knew too). People are meaner when they're commenting anonymously, and they tend to lie the most when they're texting versus any other form of communication. . . . .
Right now, the users of these apps are young, yes, mostly under 24 years old. But if young women are adopting these apps now, and they're growing up considering the behavior they enable to be common practice, what does that mean for the future? . . . .
Sure, this first wave of anonymous apps may be replaced with new ones, and the girls using them now will grow up. But when they do, they'll likely be women with a scary knowledge of how to backstab, lie, and bully with little more than a swipe of the thumb—or a scarring story about how it happened to them. Thanks, guys, but I really don't think we need an app (or 20) for that, do we?”
