#week7post

[ivythuyphammda2009]

Trolling and Social media conflict

Everybody must still remember the case of Amanda Todd, a Canadian teenager who committed suicide after incessant sufferings online (Grenoble, 2012).

I was really antagonized and irked after reading this article. As a digital citizen, she just utilized the Internet to meet and talk to new people. However, this innocent action unintentionally led to bad people’s misusing social media against her. The man who had contacted her on Facebook cast a slur on her by forwarding her naked photo to everyone. To be honest, after this case, cyberbullying is indeed an anathema to me and I strongly believe a law should be ratified to govern and regulate social media use.

In fact, not only commoners like Amanda suffer from cyberbullying, but celebrities as well. Recently, former Australia’s Next Top Model judge Charlotte Dawson was found dead at her home in Sydney.

http://stcommunities.straitstimes.com/tv/2014/02/23/former-australias-next-top-model-judge-charlotte-dawson-found-dead-her-sydney-home

In 2012, she was hospitalized after Internet trolls had sent bullying messages to her when she participated in an anti-bullying programme, which is kind of ironic. Speaking of cyberbullying, it is a mistake not to mention South Korea. A number of stars also took their lives due to acerbic online comments. For instance, Choi Jin Sil, South Korea’s Julia Roberts, committed suicide after prolonged online gossip about her personal life (Veale, 2008)

http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1847437,00.html#

As a matter of fact, since 2007, South Korea has enforced a law to control cyberbullying by preventing Internet users from hiding their identities. Nevertheless, its effect is still in doubt when the number of suicide cases has not fallen. In view of the situation, the South Korean government, besides the current law, has lately launched another programme to enable parents to get an alert whenever their kids receive a suspicious message (Arrouas, 2014 http://ti.me/1o6r0fK)

In my opinion, these laws and campaigns might affect netizens’ privacy and anonymity. However, they are still necessary because teenagers, mostly victims of cyberbullying cases, are considered minors and should be protected. Therefore, for the sake of safeguarding children, the future generation, from losing their lives by cyberbullying, Australia should consider adopting these laws and programmes to try curbing the situation. 

[dig-communities]

The act of “trolling” has been around for quite some time but I have only recently learnt this new terminology through memes and ridiculous phrases on Facebook. Memes can actually be quite hilarious but sometimes these jokes are taken too far and way out of context. In turn, the consequences of trolling, hating or social provocation, as discussed by Anthony McCosker during the lecture, can be severe and potentially damaging, not only to one’s self esteem or popularity but also their existence. Cyberbullying is a way of psychologically tormenting others. The purpose of cyberbullying revolves around continuous harassment and intent to humiliate others for pleasure, boredom or to feel superior. Danah Boyd (2014) writes about how individuals have become extremely vicious and rude within digital communities and that this problem is escalating rapidly, especially for our younger generations. The act of provocation is also a form of bullying as the culprits aim to intentionally initiate a reaction from the victim, testing their limit of emotional tolerance. It is challenging to confront the perpetrator when they have the option of remaining anonymous. This cowardly act of putting someone down to increase their own intrapersonal qualities and self-esteem, or even using an alias to befriend someone is just an example of the sadistic people in this world. Boyd uses the suicide of Amanda Todd as an example of the effects of cyberbullying and online hate, and the fact that people formulated groups and posted about how ‘she deserved it’ is just disgusting. After Todd filmed herself sharing her struggles, she opened a window of opportunity for niche audiences (specifically the teenage/adolescent demographic) to see her side of the story and openly express her emotions. YouTube videos concerning one’s opinions and feelings increase the risk of exposure to more bullying and social conflict, as McCosker spoke about in the lecture and his reading, and as the video was frequently viewed, the mass media saw her being attacked online. This created an affordance for people to intervene. However, it is hard to tackle the antagonist when you are behind an electronic device. In year 10 and year 11, schools in my area made “Gossip Girl” groups and people would send the admins private messages of any rumours they had heard about other students. Despite seeing a majority of dumb rumours, a few school pages were lathered with very intricate and extremely intimate details, and were not only catastrophic to their reputation but to their families and other friends. Although these Gossip Girl pages aren’t quite as extreme as the comments and hate Amanda Todd received, belittling someone in front of their high school peers is probably one of the worst experiences a teenager could have, and unfortunately some individuals don’t have the mentality and confidence to overcome the embarrassment. Trolling doesn’t have to be a side effect of cyberbullying, social conflict or hating (whatever you want to call it). The necessity to put other down not only through physical interaction but through online networking sites demonstrates how gutless and attention-seeking people have become. I can’t even express how offended I am that people laugh at others’ emotional instability and physical insecurity and go further to constantly torment them by telling them to die. Like how does their appearance even affect your life?! Online communication boards allowing anonymity practically scream “recipe for disaster”, but we should all be aware and educated of ways to counteract cyberbullies.