Social media is becoming more of negative platform as time moves forward. People are being bashed, bullied, and the newest term, “called out” for their actions. The number of teens cyber bullied has done nothing but increase over the years, despite the amount of campaigning done to create awareness. It is reasonable to assume as a citizen, civility on social media is not positive.

Making a difference in such a large world can be challenging, but not impossible. One effective way creating this civility is by every day posting one positive tweet, story, or picture. By posting a positive quote or inspirational saying everyday it allows individuals who follow you to have more of an optimistic outlook for the day.

Everyone knows Lori Loughlin also known as “Aunt Becky” from Full House. Her actions caused her to have a negative backlash from the social media world. People online are criticizing and berating her for based on the news stories published about her scandal. Is this ethical? Should our society be negatively bashing her online? Many people would say yes, that it is okay for individuals to express that on social media; some may say it is not, that they are adding more negativity into the world. I believe that negativity should stay off social media, a way I can increase the positivity on social media is by commenting something positive on at least one post a day.

Overall, there are many ways our society can increase our civility on social media. Two of those things are posting positive encouragements and commenting positive things on others post. Another way we can do this is just to be kind, I believe that if people are kinder to each other than our civility on social media will increase.

 

What will you do to create more positive civility on social media?

When I was a sophomore in high school I posted a video on my twitter that I would quickly regret. The video was of me asking my best friend who had down syndrome if she would like to have a sleepover for her birthday. Her mother had expressed to me that she had never had a sleepover. Once this video was posted it became viral amongst my county and neighboring counties. A boy who went to a different school, but was very well known for being a cyberbully was also in the popular friend group. When the boy saw my video he began to bully me and my friend. He tweeted very derogatory names and said some of the most hurtful things I have ever experienced. When saw these notifications popping up on my phone I had no clue what to do. I had so many thoughts running through my head. Would the girl’s mom be mad I posted this because I didn’t ask her permission? Do I tattle on a extremely popular person or do I just block him and “problem solved”? I even thought, do I just say nothing? Is what this young man did ethical? I eventually became the moral agent when I screenshotted all his tweets before they disappeared and brought them to my principle as well as his principles attention.

 

As all those thoughts went through my head, I also began having internal conflict of pros and cons to each decision I could make. If tattled on the popular guy then my social status within the school would decrease. As shallow as that sounds; it did cross my mind. A pro was that he would get in trouble and be held to accountability for his actions. If I blocked him or just let it go then I would be letting myself down. I valued special education more than anything and it would be unethical of me to not say anything to him and stand up for her. It was, and still is, extremely important to me to be an advocate for individuals who may not be able to advocate for themselves. What he did was not ethical, he was not being a good social media citizen. This situation I believe portrays deontological ethics; the ability to always choose the right thing to do. You could also call this teleological ethics because it was the greatest amount of good for everyone involved, although he would get in trouble for his actions.

 

With all the pros and cons I decided it is important for me to bring attention to this situation by administrators. I believe my decision was what was best for everyone involved. No one was harmed by my action to alert the administrators.

 

What would you do?

 

Social Media Freaks by Dustin Kidd is an informational book that focuses on varying issues in the social media world. Kidd focuses on racial discrimination, gender and sexuality perspectives, disability perspectives, and social class bigotry. The focal point of chapter three in Social Media Freaks is the perspectives of individuals who identify in the LGBTQ community.

A major concept presented to the readers is something called slash fiction. Slash fiction focuses on allowing fictional characters to be presented to the public eye as homosexuals. The word slash comes from the slash you would use to put in between the two names. For example; Kidd gives the sample slash for the characters Harry/Draco from Harry Potter. Slash is not an actuality of the characters getting together; it is a recreation of the story in one’s head or shared on social media.

Slash fiction is the intimate fictional relationship between characters of the same sex. For instance, an example of slash fiction could be members of the LGBTQ community using “Batman/Robin” meaning there is a fictional intimacy between the two. Another famous slash fiction is “James Bond/Q” from the movie Skyfall. Young adults also can do this with children’s movies like Toy Story using the characters “Buzz Lightyear/Woody”

How do you think society would react if film makers were to create more movies with main characters that were attracted to the same sex?

Personally, I think society would discriminate even more if more movies were to have main characters that identified as LGBTQ. I give credit to the citizens of the United States for becoming more open to homosexual relationships, but our society as a whole is still far behind. Compared to other places in the world that serve the death penalty for people expressing their sexuality, we are much more advanced. Parents in today’s society still fear their child will “turn gay” if exposed to that at a young age. This alone still shows how far we have to come as a society. For now, slash fiction will have to do, and it is safe to say that members who participate in these acts enjoy doing what they do.