Social networkers could use a spoonful of “cybermanners”
- Wednesday, May 5, 2010, 14:52
- Threat Research
Recently, I have thought that a lot of Internet-related social problems could be solved by a strong dose of “cyber-manners.”
Think about it… if we all just thought for a moment before we tweet, text or post then the world may be a different place. Well, at least the Internet would be a different place for our teens and college students to engage with others on.
Some recent events that have sparked this conversation with friends have been:
The case of Phoebe Prince, a beautiful teen who was cyberbullied and harassed so badly that she committed suicide.
The California employee sexting case where texting overage charges on an employee’s pager caused the employer to check up on texting content and found sexually charged texts.
An article by Rachel Simmons that talks abou a new website called Formspring. This site encourages you to communicate with others using brutal honesty, in other words with honest cruelty. Use of the site has been linked to the teen suicide in Long Island of 17 year old Alexis Pilkington. Another incredible, young girl is gone because of the way another teen treated her online. According to Simmons, things like “I hate you” and “you’re slutty” are some of the tame examples she quotes from the site.
Really??? Really??? Would you say that in person? Better yet, would you say that (continue reading...)