Social Media Made Bullying Easy
Liking and commenting on a picture is a common feature supported by many social media platforms. People like their friend’s picture to show support and comment to communicate. Unfortunately, those aren’t the only ways people use the tools given by social media.
L. Winner introduces the idea of social determinism of technological theory, where the organization and society determines the use of the technology. Keeping this theory in mind, have you ever thought about how easy it is to make a social media account? For social media platforms such as Instagram, all you need to do is enter an email and choose a password.
A fake email account can be created in less than five minutes, and choosing a fake name doesn’t take too long either. Protected by their anonymity, adding a rude comment or harassing another person on a social media platform is pretty easy.
Social media, such as Facebook and Instagram, should be platforms where everyone should feel safe and comfortable. I’ve seen several celebrities receiving hurtful comments through social media. Sure they can report the person leaving the rude comments, but the cyberbullies will create another new account without even breaking a sweat.
Though social media was created to be an online community where you can help, share, educate, and entertain, parts of the platforms became a space to gossip, hurt, and expose. Using the powerful idea of being anonymous, cyberbullies are changing the use of technology. Without any strict rules on the social media platforms, cyberbullying will continue to occur.
