On Cyber Bullying…

Although my thoughts on this apply to all cyber bullying, I’m going to attach it here to a specific, recent event, namely the suicide of a gay teen who was outed in a very public way by a so-called “friend”.  If you haven’t heard about it, first of all, where have you been?  But here’s the full story.

Basically, a college student loaned his dorm room to this teen, who was closeted, and then broadcasted his friend having a same-sex sexual encounter live via iChat.  Upon discovering this, said closeted teen went on to commit suicide.

First off, let me just say how sickening I find this whole situation.  This guy was in the closet, which obviously meant he

The original post, DARING people to watch the feed.

wasn’t ready to be openly gay yet, and it was his business, and his alone.  The fact that he was betrayed by someone he thought was a friend makes it even worse.  And how does the friend, Dharun Ravi, react to the fact that he essentially drove someone to suicide?  Not how he should have, being regretful, disgusted, and horrified as what he did, if those words are even strong enough.  Instead he reacts by trying to protect himself from any harmful consequences, by deleting his twitter post(shown to the side) and replacing it with a different one (below the original).  Little psychology for you: this behavior displays, according to Lawrence Kohlberg, stage 2 morality, usually exhibited in young children (the self-interest stage).  Shows how much of a grown up this college student is.  Also shows how smart he is, since most internet users know that anything deleted can be found again, and they found his old posts.  Now he’s being charged in criminal court, and I think he should be.

I have never bought the line of thinking that says that suicide is an act of selfishness.  People don’t get to the edge, with no where but down to go by themselves.  They get pushed there, whether

The altered post

by other people or situations.  No one can remain strong forever under such pressure.  The point is, I believe that whether he meant to hurt his friend or not, he is one of two kinds of people: an idiot or a sadist.  On no level is this ok, and there is nothing that can make him not responsible.  Even if the thus far unnamed teen was depressed before, it is still Dharun’s fault, for pushing him when he was already in that state.  It’s his fault and he needs to be held responsible.

Not to mention that events like this demonize modern media outlets, things that should be used to maintain contact with friends, get to know others, or to learn.

If you read this today (Oct. 19) or even tomorrow, there’s a Facebook based movement to wear purple in remembrance on the 20th.  If you get a chance, please take part.  They deserve it.

YouTubers Series: sxephil [Phillip DeFranco]

We’ll kick off the YouTubers posts with one of my favorites: Philip DeFranco, a.k.a. sxephil.   Boasting over 1.3 million subscribers and the no. 9 spot on the website’s Most Subscribed Users list, he wields a lot of clout in the online

DeFranco, doing the Show

community, which is growing by the day.  DeFranco has 3 separate channels, the primary being where he posts his Philip DeFranco Show, in which he offers his sarcastic and often humorous take on the news of the day.  The show posts a new Mon-Thursday every night.  To date, DeFranco has posted over 500 videos.  He makes his living off of these videos in part, and loves doing it, which is more than a lot of people in todays world can say about their jobs.  And I think that’s an important thing.

DeFranco’s news show is a format somewhat similar to that of The Colbert Report or The Daily Show, being a satirical news show.  But it has value, as do its TV counterparts, because it reports on real events, while keeping viewers interested with the humor that is the core of the show.  I know that I’ve learned about current events I may not have heard of yet through it.  As the online community grows, more and more people will watch.  DeFranco, along with all the top users, is a part of the YouTube Partnership Program.  Essentially, he is paid by Google based on how many views his videos get.

 

the PDS Tagline, as seen on one of DeFranco's T-Shirts, available for purchase online

 

So, with it now possible for people like “PhillyD” to make a living off of YouTube success, will the website create a new breed of superstar?  It already has. Do I think this is a good thing?  Yes, I do!  The difference is that these are real people, and ANYONE can make it.  That’s why they are so popular in part, I think; because the viewer can sense that the person in the video is just that: a real person, not some unfamiliar character that seems unreal.  It’s almost a less corrupted version of Hollywood, and it keeps growing.  Not to mention that all the top Tubers have strong connections to their followers, usually thanking them profusely in their videos.  It’s a kind of emotional connection that keeps people watching, something that Hollywood has never done.  Could the YouTube celebrities overtake the popularity of major stars? Maybe.  As said before, the best thing about it is that if you have a good idea, a strong spark, and a little creativity, you can succeed, just as DeFranco has.

For more on my take on Satirical News and how important is, see another of my posts.

To check out the Philip DeFranco Show, visit his channel here .

YouTube: Home to a New Generation of Superstars

We all know that there’s no discussion on current social media complete without at least some mention of video sharing mammoth YouTube.  Home to millions of videos and worth a $1.65 Million buyout by Google back in 2006, the website is a juggernaut of profits, information, and entertainment in today’s world.  So, what’s one of, if not the, biggest products of YouTube?  The users, or “YouTubers”.    This post is my introduction to a series of messages I will post about some of the biggest, and some of my favorite, Tubers out there.  With followings in the hundreds of thousands (or even breaking a million) and plenty of videos with thousands upon thousands of views (or once again, millions), are these people the new generation of public figures, of “stars”?  Is YouTube the new Hollywood, where anyone can truly make it with a good idea?  You be the judge!  First post is tomorrow (10/8/10), and others will follow!

Wikipedia: This Generation’s Britannica (kind of)

Just one of Wiki's millions of articles

Today in my Media Literacy class, we discussed Wikipedia after viewing this video of Jimmy Wales, the founder of the website.

You can watch the 20 minute TED Talk video here.  It’s worth watching, believe me.

On to the discussion.  In the video, he describes the idea behind Wikipedia and the culture that now surrounds it, as well as debunking some myths about the website.  The idea is to give anyone free access to all that humans know.

The most famous attribute of Wikipedia is the ability of anyone to edit a page.  You’d think this would cause major issues, right?  Wrong.  According to Wales, there are a collection of regular contributors, a volunteer staff, who track changes and check on them.  He even mentions one user in particular, calling him a “famous Wikipedian”.  So, if the great majority of the information is in fact accurate (and it’s easy to tell when it’s not, i.e. a page that just sounds ridiculous, or one with no citations at all), what does that make Wikipedia?

The new and improved Encyclopedia, that’s what.  It makes use of an idea called “collective intellect”, or the ability to pool knowledge with others to achieve a common goal, which in this instance is to gather the intellect of the world in one free, easy to access place, creating a constantly up-to-date source of information collected into one location.  A major idea behind collective intellect and Wikipedia is that together we can achieve what none of us can alone, and that is something I believe.

Very little vandalism is perpetrated on the website, and all of it is quickly rectified by Wikipedia’s “staff”.  As more and more of the world gains access to the internet, and so to Wikipedia, it’s collection of information will grow until it becomes the one site to find truly anything you want to learn about.  The world’s skrinking, to a place where you have to go shorter and shorter distances still to find the ideas of, and learn from, others.  While it has its shortcomings, which are also shortcomings of the democratic system it’s based upon, not the site alone, Wikipedia has endless possibilities.

We’ve achieved so much in history, all the way from totally to slightly separated from each other.  What about when the barriers are gone rather than smaller?  How much could any and every human achieve with the intellectual wealth of the world at his/her fingertips?

The possibilities are endless.