In the this technological society that we have become accustomed to, almost anything can be said over social media. There is little or no filter to what can be said, especially on Facebook and Twitter, and whether it be serious, light-hearted or even derogatory, its all being said everyday without any control. Someone will post their opinion on an issue and it’s almost expected that someone else with opposing views will comment on it in a rude or demeaning way. Instead of simple just disagreeing they take it a step further, often using profanities or even racial slurs. They feel the need to comment on other people’s posts in a demeaning manor and to cause an argument. I’m not entirely sure what their intensions are,
There is also and increasing number of incidents in the social media which involve misogyny and cyber-hate. This, to me, is just disgusting! Men putting women down in any context is plain wrong and undoes all the oppression and inequalities that women throughout history have worked together to overcome. From petty name-calling to the case where a male politician “meowed” at Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The concept of “trolling” really doesn’t make sense to me. Why would you bother wasting your time trying to offend other people just because you feel like it? Do these people honestly have nothing better to do? A particular trolling case that caught me attention involved television socialite and judge on Australia’s Next Top Model, Charlotte Dawson and trolls on her Twitter account. The extent to which these individuals abused Dawson over her Twitter account landed her in hospital. Threats such as “stick your head in a toaster” and “you should hang yourself” were made which Dawson just couldn’t take and was admitted to hospital.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrwnBGsyX8o
This lack of filter to what people can say and the anonymity of the trolls means that anyone can say anything, especially something they wouldn’t say in normal life or to someone’s face. This ultimately can result in an individual seriously harming themselves and in general it just puts people off even using social networking. I know personally if I was ever confronted with an internet troll I’d simply just leave whichever social media site I was on. There’s no point giving the person fuel or attention, they’ll just think that they’re winning and the best thing for them is to get a reaction out of someone else.
Aiyana Levin 