I have no idea what it is with people and the fascination about rumors. If you go and question people about their rumor mongering the response usually falls into the following categories: 1) well it is fun, 2) as long as the other person does not know I am talking about them it is okay, 3) well subject X deserves it, and 4) it teaches people not to do action X,Y,Z. Ask those same people about others gossiping about them, the reaction is the complete opposite – usually a mix of anger, feeling of victimization, and “why are they talking about me.”
While I do love the internet for its information sharing and the humor of misinformation sharing, I strongly draw the line at violence, damage to reputation (monetary damages), and out right idiocy. Hopefully, the recent legal actions back home will change the misinformation spreading. See the articles previously posted about the Erin Andrews and Hulk Hogan cases.
Hulk Hogan awarded further damages in Gawker sex tape case – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35868127
Do we really need to wait until someone dies or loses millions of dollars to stop people from doing bad things? Seriously, you would not use the internet to tell someone off if you had the guts and the notion you were actually in the right. See the following articles from the past weeks. Sorry behind.
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While the teachers in Britain are apparently fearing for their students safety as the youngest victim is 7 and the average is between 13-16, they are also in fear of their own safety. See the quoted section below as well as the full article.
Teachers fear for pupils’ safety on social media – http://www.bbc.com/news/education-35881350
Teachers’ reported online abuse by parents
“Parent got child to take a photograph of me whilst teaching.
“I used to teach the parent many years ago.
“The parent then posted the picture along with derogatory comments, ‘I can’t believe he is still teaching.
“She made comments about my capabilities, made up lies about the state of the pupils in my class, she discussed with her friends and husband about knocking me out, her friends called me abusive names and added to the threats of violence.”
“Told daughter off at school, mum put on Facebook that she was going to come to school to punch me.”
“Parent threatened to come in and ‘sort that bitch out’.”
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The Slenderman case is back in the news as the girls who stabbed their “friend” 17 times are in a new documentary. The girls’ lawyers are now trying to avoid prosecution in ciminal court as an adult. The parents have no idea why the girls decided to follow a fictional online character and join the “Slenderman cult.” Sociologists have stated that had the children had more personal contact with real people versus internet websites, they might not have tried to stab their friend to death.
Slenderman director on the ‘faceless’ character’s fascination – http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/35816715/slenderman-director-on-the-faceless-characters-fascination
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For those of you who are in China and understand the viciousness that is within the gossip circles here and the insistence that the most vocal is always right – see the previous post about a man who insisted on commenting on the lack of a woman’s period and her barenness to three other women at dinner, this is a classic.
A woman on a flight from Britain to Beijing was allegedly exposed to racially upsetting words by another passenger. While this is defintely wrong on the passenger’s part, I am not sure how this is the fault of Virgin Atlantic? Boycotting an airline company because of another passenger’s bad behavior is silly because the airline cannot control his actions – at most they could move the man. Also, there are so many racist and sterotypical comments thrown at foreigners in China that you would think the reactions by netzins are extreme. See comments about boycotting Virgin and comments above.
If it is true that the Virgin Flight attendant participated in the passanger’s bad behavior, he should be fired. You cannot encourage bad behavior on a flight of all things – no place to hold a rowdy passenger who wants to fight.
Virgin Atlantic Probes ‘Racial Abuse’ of Chinese Woman on Flight – http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzA3OTgwOTczMQ==&mid=438587540&idx=2&sn=8833668d5fdb88e565dfb1a4d3150bd2&scene=5&srcid=0319eybKHfsBKR9HNnlFli4Y#rd
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Lovely to see that we have new ways to harrass people on the internet – sarcasm people. Man claims that he was only creating banter – how is calling someone a slut, whore, and being sexually promiscuous banter? For those who don’t know, the definition of banter is the following:
1.
2.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/banter?s=t
See the article below and the youtube video link and its comments. Saddest thing of all, this guy might actually be a total stranger.
YouTuber says she is the victim of a ‘baiting out’ video – http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-35828073
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Current Mood: Disappointed in humanity. These issues with the internet and their resulting legal actions and/or legislation have occurred within a period of 10 days 🙁