Harm Social Media Can Cause
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Bullying and suicide via social media has attracted a lot of attention lately.
Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University, committed suicide on Septemper 22. This was after a video of his "intimate" encounter with another male was broadcasted live on this Internet by his own roommate, Dharun Ravi and fellow student Molly Wei.
Clementi updated his Facebook status to "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry" sometime during that day he committed suicide.
This action of his roommate and fellow student is being viewed as not only a hate crime but also an invasion of privacy. If convicted they could face up to 5 years in jail.
This incident also brings up the question about the harm social media can cause.
Many children, teenagers and even adults have experienced bullying in one technological way or another.
18 year old Jesse Logan committed suicide because of "sexting". She sent nude pictures to her boyfriend, of the time, via picture messaging on her phone.
When they later broke up her boyfriend sent these pictures to other girls in their school. These girls then proceeded to harass her until she hung herself a few months later.
A lot of focus has been put on not only bullying but bullying due to one's sexuality. Teenagers and young adults are afraid to "come out" because of the harassment they know they will have to endure.
A recent "It Gets Better" campaign has been started to tell youth struggling with their identity and sexuality that over time it gets better.
Online media is used for all sorts of inappropriate things. One man actually committed suicide live online.
Many viewers egged him on, others tried to persuade him not to while others had no idea what was going on until it was too late.
All of this just goes to show that social media is a powerful thing that should not be taken lightly.
Everyone has poked fun at or even bullied someone online at one time or another. Next time they're thinking about it they need to step back and think about the possible consequences.
3 comments:
Wow. It's crazy how times have changed. A suicide note in a Facebook status? I guess so. I agree that social media can cause harm if it is placed in the wrong hands. The attraction bullies have to Facebook and other social media sites revolves around the fact that they can take the personal aspect of bullying away. They don't have to see the faces of the people they hurt, and therefore they find it easier to do. I think that this is a great blog post. It spreads awareness and provides hope with the mention of the "It Gets Better" campaign.
I agree with Tara that this is a great post. This issue is definitely something that needs to be addressed now. Social media has become so powerful and influential that it can lead to anything happening. When people are committing suicide because their are being bullied in front of the world, something needs to be done about it.
I am disgusted by Dharun's unconscious/moronic mentality.
I really don't see the point, or the fun, in persecuting his roommate for his sexual preferences. And if Dharun did, there is definitely something wrong with him and other individuals who found this to be entertaining.
Jesse makes a good point: "something needs to be done." I believe social media should not be held responsible for any of these tragedies.
Blame should be held upon ethically uneducated teens who need a better education about the proper use of social media and receive better personal values.
Post a Comment