Week 10: Digital Citizenship and Conflict: Social Media Governance
Week 10! Finally! This semester has felt like its gone on forever. This will be my last ever Tumblr post for the unit mda20009! But back to the point of this week, this week was a bit of a sad and hard topic to hear being talked about for many reasons but it was Digital Citizenship and Conflict: Social Media Governance.
This topic covers the not so good side of digital communities; where they can prove to be not so inclusive and problematic.
Online harassment is something that is unfortunately seen extremely often within digital communities.
Online harassment is an umbrella term for many different actions and has many definitions to the term. A definition I thought was quite straightforward and easily comprehendible.
"Umbrella term that can include: Being called offensive names, being embarrassed online, being physically threatened online, being sexually harassed online, being harassed over a long time, being hurt online by a romantic partner, being impersonated, spreading damaging rumors online, encouraging others to harass people online, and attempting to hurt the victim in person after online harassment" (Lenhart, et al in Marwick & Robyn Caplan 2018).
From the research used for this week's lecture it was found through Plan Internationals survey, where they surveyed 14,000 girls across 31 countries that more than half of those girls had been targeted with abusive and insulting language.
Haslop et al found that people who identify as female and transgender are more likely to be targeted by online harassment (2021). Furthermore, In 2021 a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit found more than a third of women worldwide have experienced abuse online, rising to almost half for younger women
In hearing these facts and statistics it has most definitely made me feel a bit upset and disappointed, as this is reality for people in modern day society. Where you would think that online users would be past this sort of behavior.
The lecture this week also addressed what can be done to try and stop online bullying and harassment. There are not only legal remedies but also humor can raise awareness, advocacy and advice from the e-commissioner as well as platform pressure and corporate social responsibility.
This weeks required reading focused primarily on the concept of 'snowflake generation', "a term used to mock their perceived intolerance and over-sensitivity" (Haslop, O’Rourke & Southern, 2021, p. 1).
This term was also brought up in this week's presentations and it intrigued me quite a bit. I was already aware of the connotations of the term snowflake but I was interested to find out what it meant in relation to this generation. Where essentially it refers to a ‘new breed of hyper-sensitive censorious youth’ (Fox, 2016b: np), a derogatory label for millennials, used by those who feel they're overly socially conscious without taking real action (new idea).
Well that’s it from me for mda20009, I hope you enjoyed these posts! Thank you for reading : )
References for this week
Douglas, E. (2022) What are HR’s responsibilities in online harassment?, HRD Canada. Available at: https://www.hcamag.com/ca/specialization/employment-law/what-are-hrs-responsibilities-in-online-harassment/406496 (Accessed: 08 May 2023).
Haslop, C., O’Rourke, F., & Southern, R. (2021). #NoSnowflakes: The toleration of harassment and an emergent gender-related digital divide, in a UK student online culture. Convergence, 27(5), 1418–1438.
If you’re being harassed online, you don’t have to deal with it alone (2019) Kids Helpline. Available at: https://kidshelpline.com.au/teens/issues/online-harassment (Accessed: 08 May 2023).
Milne, E 2023, ‘MDA20009 Week 10 Digital Citizenship and Social Media Conflict 2023.pptx’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning materials via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology, 8 May, viewed 8th May 2023.
Published by abbieapyne View all posts by abbieapyne et al. (2019) Generation snowflake, Language and the Media. Available at: https://abbieapyne.wordpress.com/2019/03/21/generation-snowflake/ (Accessed: 08 May 2023).
