Cyberbullying

A Danger of New Media

            Growing up, I learned that nothing or no one is perfect. Intentions may be good, but there always seem to be a reward vs. risk no matter what someone is doing. That’s just the way life goes. There is no difference when it comes to new media and online activity. A danger in new media that is affecting the world is cyberbullying.

            Cyberbullying is the use of electronic communication to bully a person by sending messages of harassment, threatening, or intimidating nature. Cyberbullying is very dangerous because there is no telling how the person being bullied will handle or take what is being said to them or about them. There have been several different instances where cyberbullying has lead to various individuals committing suicide.

            In 2010, Tyler Clementi was a freshman at the University of Rutgers. His stay at Rutgers was very short lived though as well as his life because he committed suicide on September 22, 2010. Tyler was a victim of cyberbullying. The report on puresight.com says, “Tyler Clementi, a shy 18-year-old Rutgers University (New Jersey) freshman with a passion for playing the violin, jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge on September 22, 2010. His last words, posted onto his Facebook profile about 10 minutes before he died, were: "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry." Also freshmen at Rutgers were Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, who were the causes behind Tyler’s decision to commit suicide. Dharun and Molly had recorded Tyler sexual encounter with another man in his room and streamed the video online without Tyler knowing. Dharun and Molly were only charged with invasion of privacy.

            According to buzzfeed.com, there have been 9 teenage suicides since last September due to cyberbullying. This leaves me to wonder what can we do to prevent cyberbullying or at least improve the chances of it not happening. To be quite honest though, I am not sure if there is anyway to fix this problem. I believe that there should be a harsher penalty although. I think that if one is caught cyberbullying another individual, that person should at least be fined money for it. Imprisonment might be a little bit too far because they did not actually commit the murder, but they were the cause of it. Maybe the fine will lower the statistics. Until something is done, there is no telling what else cyberbullying may lead up to.

Works Cited

"Tyler Clementi 1992-2010." Parental Control. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. <http://www.puresight.com/Real-Life-Stories/tyler-clementi-1992-2010-puresight.html>.

"9 Teenage Suicides In The Last Year Were Linked To Cyber-Bullying On Social Network Ask.fm." BuzzFeed. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/a-ninth-teenager-since-last-september-has-committed-suicide>.

Small Potatoes

Small Potatoes

            What is a small potato? Is it exactly what it sounds like or is it a reference to something else? “The breakneck speed of media evolution in the 21^st century has left some major new media in the dust, or at least not as prominent as they were just a few years ago.” That is what small potatoes are in reference to new media. Some smaller potatoes are MySpace, Digg, Reddit, Second Life, and Podcasting. Some feel that these smaller potatoes should either be considered more than just a small potato or should just be forgotten all together. In my personal opinion, MySpace should be forgotten all together.

            MySpace is a social networking website where you can create a profile page to communicate with friends or meet new friends. It first jumped onto the scene in 2003. When MySpace first jumped onto the scene, its constant rise of users who signed up and were online was extremely high. Fast forward 10 years later and there is hardly anybody who uses MySpace anymore making it a small potato. Some small potatoes can be revived while some should just totally be forgotten about. I think in MySpace’s case, it should simply just be forgotten about. There is no hope in MySpace becoming relevant again.

            An article was posted online two years ago by marketingweek.co.uk entitled “Four Reasons why MySpace Failed to Retain the Social Networking Crown.” In my opinion though, there are only three reasons worth mentioning. Those three reasons are…

•       Lack of loyalty to its users;
•       Lack of innovation; and
•       Lack of understanding about itself.

            When MySpace first came onto the scene, it appealed mainly to people who were between the ages of 13-15-years old. MySpace failed to update to appeal to an older age and those 13-15-year-old kids went away from MySpace and joined a more popular social networking site called Facebook. Facebook is not hard to master or understand. It only takes a few seconds as opposed to MySpace, which can take some time. Not only is MySpace pretty much hard to grasp, it also lost site of what its main purpose was which is to communicate. The website begin to primarily focus on entertainment as oppose to communication.

            I am curious to know how many people actually still visit MySpace today. Although I am pretty sure the number is low, I want to know how low. So long MySpace! You had a great run, but now I think it’s just time for your website to just be shut down from existence altogether.

Works Cited

O'Reilly, Laura. "Four Reasons Why MySpace Failed to Retain the Social Network Crown." Marketing Jobs & Marketing News. N.p., 12 Jan. 2011. Web. 05 Nov. 2013. <http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/four-reasons-why-myspace-failed-to-retain-the-social-network-crown/3022208.article>.

Levinson, Paul. "Smaller Potatoes." New New Media. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2013. N. pag. Print.