Week 4: Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the biggest bully of all?

Doesn’t it seem strange how internet etichs seems to be valued less important than real world ethics? Even though it is in fact easier to get away with bad behaviour online, It should be taken seriously however. Very seriously.

Over the last decades, escpecially with the rise of social networking sites, bullying has reached a new level. Long gone are the days where bullying only happened face to face. Now, with the relative anonymity of social media, “it makes it possible to commit immoral acts so fast that one hardly notices” (Hamelink, 2006,  p. 118). Things you would never say to someone in person, has become easy to say with a click of a button.

Voe, a 15 year old top blogger from Norway, recently shut down her blog due to months of cyber bullying. She earned thousands of dollars every day on her blog, but gave that up as she couldn’t handle the bullying anymore. That say’s a lot about how much cyber bullying affects people. Rosie’s great headline describes this perfectly; “Sticks and stones may break your bones, but online taunts will haunt you.”

I personally can’t stand some people’s online behavior. It seems too easy to justify bad online behaviour simply because they’re hiding behind a nickname or a fake profile.  Grow up!

And stop sending me “I hate…“ groups on Facebook. Ignore.

 

References:

Emilie Nereng, 2011. Voe's blog. Accessed March 28, 2011. http://voe.blogg.no/

Facebook. 2011. “I HATE JULIA GILLARD”. Accessed March 28, 2011. http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/I-HATE-JULIA-GILLARD/113650705351539

Hamelink, C. (2006). The Ethics of the Internet: Can we cope with Lies and Deceit on the Net? In Ideologies of the Internet, K. Sarikakis & Daya Thussu, pp. 115-130. New Jersey: Hampton Press. 

Rosie’s New Media Reflections.  2011. “Sticks and stones may break your bones... but online taunts will haunt you” Rosie's New Media Reflections, March 27. Accessed March 28, 2011. http://rosiesnewmediareflections.blogspot.com/2011/03/sticks-and-stones-may-break-your-bones.htmlbreak-your-bones.html

Sheen. 2010. "The Harsh Effects of Cyber Bullying: A Call to Action Now!". Image. Accessed March 28, 2011. http://thedelanoobserver.blogspot.com/2010/07/harsh-effects-of-cyber-bullying-call-to.html#axzz1HsSdvIFL