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King Mer
Blogger, Thriver, and super freaking Queer. QueeringThroughLife.com

The Social Influence of Social Media

http://queeringthroughlife.com/social-influence-social-media/

The inventiveness and resourcefulness of Social Media has brought about an incredible power to the individual in terms of both succeeding and failing at a psychological level. While Social Media has proven to be a major asset to online education and connections with other people, it also has exposed the dirty side of the human psyche with deriving entertainment through the psychological and emotional harm of others.

Considering the principles of Hermaneutical Philosophy, it is important to examine not only the actions and motives of those who actively cyberbully, but also those that incite the actions of the cyberbullies. Social Media provides a vast and anonymous vessel to perform some of humanities most psychologically cruel actions and has the potential to undermine all positive influences and advances in the Social Media realm.

“Social Interest is innate to all humans and is a necessary foundation for development for an individual while also advancing the evolution of humans”, is one of the first things that Anthony Turner writes in his article Generation Z: Technology & Social Interest (Turner, 2015). With the advancement of the internet, this makes sense. It also makes sense that, just as in the non-technological world, there are strengths and weaknesses to the use of Social Media.

Turner lists two of the strengths of Social Media as being “The Potential to encourage forums that facilitate both the formation of public opinion and civic participation,” and “To provide an outlet of meeting new people, keep up with family and friends across the world, mobilize civic protests, and gain therapeutic support” (Turner, 2015).

Yet, one of the biggest weaknesses of Social Media is the “Gross Decline in face-to-face communication,” which not only decreases the growth of a person’s verbal communication skills, but can also help a bully feel less responsible for their actions.

Turner performed a study in regards to the use of smart phones, the internet and Social Media among youth, college students, and even colleagues. The findings presented that 90% of participants felt attached to the internet and also stated they would be upset if the internet was taken away (Turner, 2015).

Growing upon the thought of weaknesses of Social Media, C.R. Blease brings about the concept of ‘Facebook Depression’ in his article Too Many ‘Friends’, too few ‘Likes’? Evolutionary Psychology and ‘Facebook Depression’.

Blease states that Depression is one of the leading causes of disability in the world. This isn’t a new fact to take in to consideration, yet when further exploring the psychological uses of Social Media, both positive and negative, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to hypothesize that with 1.23 Billion people congregating on Facebook that it can be a breeding ground for the manipulation and degradation of self-esteem and self worth.

The “real world” is and has been ridden with the concept of “keeping up with the Joneses”. This same concept bleeds on to social media which gives users a much easier method of bragging about their lives, financial successes, and material purchases. Blease points out that “Mildly depressive cognition and behavior is an adaptive functional response to the perceptions of low relative social value” (Blease, 2015). He continues to state that these feelings are ‘habitually elicited’ through the act of bragging via Facebook’s status update feature.

The more “friends” a person has, the more content (status) updates tend to be from a bragging nature, which has a high probability to elicit feelings of low self worth in a user that does not perceive themselves to be as well off or privileged as their “friends”.

Yet, I wonder if this truly denotes the strong influence that Social Media has on the Social and Emotional Development of Humanity. Susan Belangee et al explore this further in Cybersocial Connectedness: A Survey of Perceived Benefits and Disadvantages of Social Media Use. Belangee bases her research on the principle of Adlerian Psychology (Individual Psychology), which explores that “Communal life — listening to and participating in communal concerns and being part of ‘all the great movements’ is a central philosophy of Adlerian Psychology” (Belangee, 2015).

She further goes on to indicate that “At the present moment, Psychological practitioners are disinterested in virtual matters”, which I personally find concerning as considering the these three articles, there is a strong case to speculate that the moderate use of Social Media can have a monumental effect of the psyche of an individual.

Correspondingly, Belangee identifies some important psychological effects of Social media:

  • Social Media inspires people to see with the eyes of another
  • Online Professional Activities provide opportunity to benefit or contribute to pooled intelligence which is subsequently a major benefit to Online Education
  • Social Media instills a connection and responsibility toward the community (Belangee, 2015).

Similarly, Mark D. Bowels reiterates many of the points demonstrated above in Introduction to Digital Literacy. He states not only that collective intelligence provides a forum for everyone to share their voice and ideas with the world and also creates online communities that are an impossibility in the real world.

Controversially to the positive influences listed throughout this paper and the articles examined, Bowels emphasizes “Equal concerns with bullying and cyberbullying and its psychological complications (Bowels, 2013). He goes on to say that “Cyberbullies have detrimental effects on people of all ages…important differences between “IRL’ (in real life) bullying and cyberbullying:

  • Cyberbullying can take place privately, 24/7
  • Children are more likely to be psychologically exposed late at night
  • Anything can be posted anonymously and transmitted to a large number of people with ease (Bowels, 2013).

In both my personal and professional life, I frequently use Social Media and have a fairly expert level of understanding of a wide variety of platforms. As such, I have seen the positive and negative effects of Social Media use on a first-hand basis.

At its core, Social Media is and has the potential to impact a world-wide culture of positivity and change through social engagement, family connections, positive marketing, and activism. Some people, however, take to the internet to provoke a culture of fear, shame, and hurt.

Throughout my research on the subject of bullying and cyberbullying, I came across a term that illustrates to motive of people who participate in these activities: Shadenfreude. Shadenfreude is a term coined by Arthur Schopenhauer to describe “The pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune. In his book The Hunger Games and Philosophy; A Critique of Pure Treason, Georgia A. Dunn (2012) pulls a quote from Schopenhauer that is a profound explanation of those who participate in Shadenfreude:

To savor shadenfreude is devilish. There is no more infallible sign of thoroughly bad heart and profound moral worhtlessness than an inclination to a sheer and undisguised malignant joy [at another’s misfortune]…The man in whom this trait is observed should forever be shunned (p. 77).”

As an illustration of the power of Social Media in the role of cyberbullying, I present what has been self identified as a “hate blog” on the popular Social Media platform, Tumblr. I, personally, have and continue to experience cyberbullying at the hands of a weblog named ‘Dramamoms’ whose sole purpose is to gossip, attack, and “dox” (expose personal documentation such home addresses, mobile phone numbers, work addresses, etc for the purpose of intimidation as well as further fueling bullying motives).

Previously, Belangee stated that Social Media instills a connection and responsibility toward community. Within the confines of my presented example, the community mentioned refers to themselves as ‘mumblrs’ (moms who use tumblr).

To further elaborate on the motives and concerns of cyberbullying within a tight knit community, I present the principles of Hermaneutical Philosophy, which can be best described as the ‘Power of Perception’ — referring to the human nature of reading and perceiving the world around them in creative ways to encourage a subjective understanding of the events unfolding around them.

During a very messy breakup, my ex was notorious for running to Tumblr (where we both have accounts) during an argument to incite the social approval of the hive in order to “unknowingly” incite the mob in to an attack against me. Furthermore, during private conversations and arguments (generally via text message), there was no real effort to solve problems or disagreements.

She instead used manipulation and threats and when not rewarded with desired outcome, would turn to incite the mob with no real consideration of the consequences to herself or others, including minors. As I work for a Domestic Violence Shelter in a secret location, the wildfire that was thus sparked led to a rampant and continuing attack against me, listing my personal address, trying to disclose the location of my workplace of women whom are in hiding from very severely abusive situations.

All of this was done without the consideration that 4 minors live in my household who could have very easily received outside consequences, such as stalking from perverts. This hive has never seemed to care whether or not the information is accurate or not, but solely live to breed drama, hatred, and hurt.

Provided this explanation and consideration, I anonymously messaged the hate blog Dramamoms to question their bullying motives…and if they even perceive their own actions as being abusive. I messaged anonymously as I knew that if I messaged with my username attached, they would answer through hate shaded glasses.

The question I asked was:

“What is your viewpoint on your contribution to online bullying? In the past you have stated that you ‘just post the messages’, yet I see you all interacting in a negative aspect quite a bit. Either way, do you not see being a vessel to congregate a community of bullies as being equal to that of a bully?”

Not only is this a question of introspection, but also to provoke the thought of the Power of Perception; to perceive not only their actions but the actions and intentions of the other anonymous users who help incite the cyberbullying.

Dramamoms quickly responded with the following:

“Sure, we can be assholes, no question. We might drag people in to stuff they don’t want to be dragged in to and we assuredly make people’s business our own. I’m in no way denying that. But (there’s always a but) I feel like it is balanced by good intentions, intermittent support, and a general concern for the children the community is raising. Everyone gossips, we all just do it publicly. There’s a demand and the drama blogs supply it. Our collective goal (as admin, as contributors, as readers) isn’t to bully, it’s to gossip, and occasionally an idiot comes along who brings out the bully in us all and we just pounce. That’s just what’s up.”

Another Tumblr hate blog, Bitchmoms, remarked:

“The level of denial here is beyond acceptable. Rationalize it all you like, it is bullying. We 100% contribute to making others feel victimized with online bullying. The whole mumblr tag contributes because everyone has something to say, but no nerve to say it, and we provide the platform and facilitate the spread of hate. There has to be some appeal to it because the same 4 birds run this blog for months and months. You all can not tell me you have done this for half as long and never considered that you do, in fact, cyberbully.”

This furthers the power of perception; not only does this community believe that they are acting both out of justness and entertainment, but they also fail to acknowledge the harm and blatant bullying actions they participate in. As a result, I am left conflicted with wondering if actions of malicious intent or actions of ignorance are worse and more harmful.

With this in mind, I took to one of the largest internet forums to gain a little bit of a broader perspective on people’s perceptions of cyberbullying. Which website did I go to? Gaia Online.

I made a new post asking three simple questions. I did not respond as I did not want to influence the answers of the participants.

  • Have you ever experienced cyberbullying?
  • If yes, how were you psychologically impacted, if at all?
  • Do you believe cyberbullying can negatively effect the social and emotional development of a person? Why or Why not?

At the time of this article, I had 7 participants. My findings were

  • 6 out of 7 participants claimed to have experienced cyberbullying at one point.
  • 5 out of 7 participants reported some degree of negative psychological impact.
  • 6 out of 7 participants claimed that cyberbullying could negatively effect the social and emotional development of a person.

Surprisingly, in regards to the final question, three participants made answers concerning the victim’s intelligence and psychological strength. This gives the impression that if someone is harassed and bullied and the victim is unable to “just get over it” that it is their fault for feeling victimized.

Some of the responses to whether cyberbullying can have a negative effect on social and emotional development were:

“Yes it can. However a person must remember that its a computer screen that’s in front of them. There are always ways of making the bullies stop.”
“Only if the person is too stupid not to ignore them, block them and/or report them. If the person being bullied is stupid enough to continue to let it happen, then yea, they’ll likely be negatively effected by it.”
“Honestly? No. You need to either be secure with yourself so you can let what others say just roll off you. There is no excuse to be stupid or weak, and sobbing about the big ‘ole mean bullies and just how much they hurt you and how you can’t possibly defend yourself…dude. There are assholes everywhere.”

All things considered, it would be naive to focus solely on the negative applications of Social Media without also focusing on the positive applications such as the pooling of intelligence as a major benefit to Online Education, seeing the world with the eyes of another, connecting families at a world-wide level unlike anything that has ever been experienced before, and providing an outlet not only for meeting new people, but also to mobilize civic protests and gain therapeutic support.

Yet to sum it all up, cyberbullying through the use of Social Media can best be explained by the following quote:

“The one thing that fills me with a sinking feeling, are the endless reality shows which seem to foster extremes of negative, dishonourable, rude arrogant behaviour. The proud mantle of, “I tell it as it is, I speak my mind,” to me, seems at odds with civilised behaviour. There is a difference between honesty and truthfulness, and overtly causing hurt or offense because it draws attention. This has filtered down into a ‘default setting’ of aggressive finger wagging ‘in your face’ cultural behaviour. (Richard Armitage)”.

REFERENCES TURNER, A. (2015). GENERATION Z: TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL INTEREST. THE JOURNAL OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY, 71(2), 103–113.
BLEASE, C. R. (2015). TOO MANY ‘FRIENDS,’ TOO FEW ‘LIKES’? EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY AND ‘FACEBOOK DEPRESSION’. REVIEW OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY, 19(1), 1- 13.
BELANGEE, S., BLUVSHTEIN, M., & HAUGEN, D. (2015). CYBERSOCIAL CONNECTEDNESS: A SURVEY OF PERCEIVED BENEFITS AND DISADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE. THE JOURNAL OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY, 71(2), 122–134.
BOWELS, M. (2013). DIGITAL LITERACY. BRIDGEPOINT EDUCATION.
DUNN, G. A., & MICHAUD, N. (2012). THE HUNGER GAMES AND PHILOSOPHY: A CRITIQUE OF PURE TREASON. HOBOKEN, NJ: WILEY.