Some wonderful silliness from the Groan. Aleks Krotoski bemoans cyber bullying and the failure of behaviour on the web. Because, apparently, she hid behind a pseudonym thirteen years ago and engaged in some silliness, it’s all a bad thing…
For some, this new technology not only facilitates, but actively encourages insidious and novel social ills. Blogs and forums are no-go zones for people who hope for rational conversation;
Really? I realise that sometimes you will come across this phenomenon, but such a sweeping generalisation? Now that’s journalism for you. I wish I could write utter garbage and get paid for it, I really do. I mean, there are blogs out there that are written by occupational experts who know more about their subject than an ill-informed hack with a deadline to hit will ever do. So why would I buy a newspaper to read such drivel? Oh, that’s right… I don’t.
Oh, it gets worse. Really it does.
cyberbullying has been blamed for several recent suicides; and white power, homophobic and jihadist organisations have colonised the web, preferring its potential to old-fashioned pamphleteering.
Not too much hyperbole there, then. According to one of the early comments to the piece, 0.002% is hardly colonising. I can’t say how accurate the percentage is, but even if not that accurate in itself, the web has hardly been colonised by these folk, that’s just plain silly and as such, no one would reasonably take the article seriously.
It looks as if the web makes it possible for us to hate one another more easily, more efficiently and more effectively.
Sigh… It also means that we can distribute our messages more efficiently and more effectively. We can exchange ideas more readily – and, importantly, we can blow holes in stupid, ill-informed articles by ignorant journalists who haven’t a clue about that on which they pontificate. And, I suspect, that it is this that drives the regular complaints by the MSM against the new media. We don’t need them and they don’t like it up ’em, so some shroud waving is in order.
And, of course, there is the usual complaint about anonymity and pseudonyms. Sure, if you are paid by a newspaper to write a story, then there is a reasonable expectation that the person will do so under their own name but it is not always the case. The Daily Express used to run a William Hickey gossip column (don’t know if it still does) written by more than one person anonymously over several years. So what? Who cares? And why should we care? What is important is the content, not necessarily who wrote it. It is also important to bear in mind that those of us who write blogs do it as a leisure exercise. Some may find that they need to keep their writing separate from their professional lives and pseudonymity is a convenient veil to achieve this.
And, finally, cyber bullying, unlike real life bullying is a simple matter to deal with. Leave the site, switch off your computer, block the other user or just ignore them. Maybe Aleks Krotoski needs to grow up a little bit.
Of course the Groan’s article is absurd hyperbole, but unfortunately, as I can attest at the moment, if someone (in this case an acquaintance from real life) has a vendetta against you, the interweb provides a wide and ever-changing canvas on which to write their vitriol. Every act of blocking them, if they are really intent, causes them to get a new identity, a new email addie. And ignoring them is fine in theory, but someone who is incapable of taking a hint, a really heavy hint, will continue regardless. It’s tedious, offensive, wearing and makes me highly creative in plotting revenge in my imagination. There is even an entire blog dedicated to defaming me (probably with a readership of three)! Who knew I was so ‘important’!?
Do I want the interwebs policed and controlled to prevent this kind of thing? Nah, course not. Do I want this unhinged woman to take a long walk off a short plank? Damn right I do. Any suggestions of legal but effective strategies gratefully received because I’m stumped.
I’m not sure there is an effective legal remedy. Stalking is notoriously difficult to deal with. There was a case dramatised on TV recently about a psychiatrist who was stalked for over two years before they finally got the woman with enough evidence to put her inside. Usually, there is little effective evidence – and all too often to the outside eye, it looks harmless. The only effective methods of dealing with it are likely to be highly illegal, unfortunately.
Oh gawd…. Another piss-poor anti-blogger article in the Grauniad. The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?
Gosh. Is that my cynicism? I was wondering where I’d left it.
I really get annoyed at this cyberbullying rubbish. Like you say, ti’s so easy to leave the site or switch the dam computer off.
These people that complain about it on Facebook are the worst. If you didnt spend all your waking hours on Facebook it might not be a problem.
Blogs are great for discussion and great for learning stuff because there is no limits.
There also good for picking up or passing on useful titbits, like your previous article 😉
And, finally, cyber bullying, unlike real life bullying is a simple matter to deal with. Leave the site, switch off your computer, block the other user or just ignore them.
Unless, of course, one has a cyberstalker who gets active every time he finds a job.
I don’t believe the behaviour of such people is anything new, only the means they have at their disposal. In other words, the interweb didn’t create them, but has made their work a lot easier. Once they had to rely on the Royal Mail. Now they can defame you to anyone passing by. Lovely.
And you can’t really just turn the computer off if you earn your living with it. But, I say again, of course you don’t ban the means anymore than you’d ban the postal service.
I periodically mull going to the police, but don’t particularly want them crawling all over my life, even if they could be arsed. This has, by the by, been going on for 5 years. I’m a bit tired of it now.
PTB – quite so, it is merely the method that has changed. The kind of online bullying that you see on forums and – I presume – Facebook can be switched off very easily. Also, moderators can delete and ban, just as blog owners can. I have done just that on occasion. I was fortunate, my bully took the hint and went away when every comment simply vanished without reply. Moderation is a powerful tool that can deny the perp a voice.
The only real solution to a stalker such as you describe is to go to the police. If you choose not to, then you have to either put up with it or find ways of mentally separating yourself. If it does damage – say to your reputation, then you would have no real option but to go down the official legal route. The case I mentioned earlier went on for several years from start to finish.