NOTES FROM ALAINA:
After watching the video that Amanda Todd posted before she took her own life, my group members and I took on different roles through the comment feed. The two choices were the role of an advocate or an instigator. I personally played an advocate under the name, or played someone who supported Amanda's case that cyber bullying is wrong. I used an anynomous name Amanda Riley...
Of course, I believe that in this sitiation the comments that people are leaving are completely innapproriate, but after researching the subject of cyberbullying even more, reading through the feed and looking at some of the controlling values of cyberbullying that we found, I was able to look at this specific situation through a new light. Those who cyberbully usually do so to feel a sense of power over another, and since it is not in a face-to-face setting, individuals are easier targets. Since these cyberbullies can be left anonymous, the people that are leaving the comments take that anonymity to their advantage, especially on a comment feed like the ones below...
Anonymous Instigator
Anonymous Advocate
Each of these comments pose from a different point of view, giving us multiple lenses to look at this situation through...
1. Those who are bullying her and saying hurtful things are wrong because it is causing harm to her emotional and physical well being.
2. Both parties who participated in the comment feed have a right to their own opinion and their right to th first amendment on the situation
Since in every state besides Montana there are laws that protect people from physical/mental face-face bullying. why doesn't every state include cyberbullying in that law as well? Parents or guardians, and even teachers and those who work at schools may not know cyberbullying is going on, which can be a part of the problem. Also, even if they do know its happening, how can it be stopped? Amanda Todd tried to take action. She moved schools and deleted social media sites. However, sadly her efforts were not enough to keep the bullying away. And even after the suicide occured, the cyberbullying continues.
1. Those who are bullying her and saying hurtful things are wrong because it is causing harm to her emotional and physical well being.
2. Both parties who participated in the comment feed have a right to their own opinion and their right to th first amendment on the situation
Since in every state besides Montana there are laws that protect people from physical/mental face-face bullying. why doesn't every state include cyberbullying in that law as well? Parents or guardians, and even teachers and those who work at schools may not know cyberbullying is going on, which can be a part of the problem. Also, even if they do know its happening, how can it be stopped? Amanda Todd tried to take action. She moved schools and deleted social media sites. However, sadly her efforts were not enough to keep the bullying away. And even after the suicide occured, the cyberbullying continues.
But do parents and adult figures draw the line? When the bullying comes to the point of an individual harming themselves? Are the necessary actions that need done include taking away social media network rights from children or their cell phones? Cyberbullying is extremely hurtful and always will be, but when in many cases that can take away from peoples rights, opinions, and creative expressions through technology. Technology restrictions aren't the answer, being aware of what people are sending out on the internet and being careful are.
COMMENTS FROM CHRISTINA:
During my experience, I have come to find out people can be cruel. However unnecessary Amanda's suicide was, it still didn't warrant the comments being made. During the social experiment, I was the advocate. There were a lot of people commenting about how it was sad . They had respect for the people who supported her and the cause. Supporting the victim and not bully seemed to win the audience.
Although, there were some negative comments swirling around on the internet based on the video. People thought she should have been stronger and take control of the situation. Taking a stand and ignore the bully, but how can you ignore something that is always starring you in the face? Some people would say they took the side of the bully, but maybe not. Maybe they took the the side of neutral. Maybe they were just expressing themselves, but when does expressing themselves become too much? Who decides this the people reading the comments, the advocates, the family, or the site? Some people believe the standard is things become illegal when you trample on the rights of another.
With all of this information, the only thing I can conclude about this situation is Amanda's health. Although humans are very intricate the brain is functionally simple. The brain, like any other organ in the human body, has two primary functions that consist of preservation and continued growth of the population. For anyone to go against those primary functions must have some sort of chemical imbalance in their body that would let them will this onto themselves.
COMMENTS FROM LIZ:
Let face it: as a society, we're immune to sob stories on the news. If it doesn't concern us, we turn the other cheek and resume our daily lives unaffected. No one stops to break down issues like cyberbullying because it's That Thing we'd like to pretend doesn't exist. It's a product of hormones and foolish decisions and opening oneself up to strangers online whom we believe we can trust but end up breaking our hearts -- or, in extreme cases, such as Amanda Todd's, ending our lives.
When my group and I started digging deeper into the ideas surrounding the death of Amanda Todd, the most recent casualty of institutionalized indifference, we discovered things about both ourselves and our perceptions of cyberbullying as more than just a black mark on the history of integrated digital communication. I assumed an anonymous identity on one of the versions of her YouTube video, commented a bit, and was surprised at how my emotions flared up at seeing my ideas contradicted, sometimes respectfully, sometimes rudely. As I noticed the hypocrisy in the heightened tempers on the comment thread, I also found a hypocrisy within myself, in that I hadn't considered any other explanations for the issue besides "It's bad to bully someone online."
When my group and I started digging deeper into the ideas surrounding the death of Amanda Todd, the most recent casualty of institutionalized indifference, we discovered things about both ourselves and our perceptions of cyberbullying as more than just a black mark on the history of integrated digital communication. I assumed an anonymous identity on one of the versions of her YouTube video, commented a bit, and was surprised at how my emotions flared up at seeing my ideas contradicted, sometimes respectfully, sometimes rudely. As I noticed the hypocrisy in the heightened tempers on the comment thread, I also found a hypocrisy within myself, in that I hadn't considered any other explanations for the issue besides "It's bad to bully someone online."
Samaritin91 is one of my group members, and was only pretending to be an Internet troll, but sadly, there are real people posting similar comments that aren't under the guise of the instigator. The following exchange both made me laugh and made me angry:
I'm Kara L. And I don't think the other poster fully understood the violent tone to their comments, and how I was trying to point out that they may have been more part of the problem than part of the solution. I'll discuss this concept more in my The Gray Area page.
Comments from Pat
The case of Amanda Todd is indeed a very case of harassment tormenting a troubled young woman who ended the onslaught of slander by taking her own life. Looking over the case for what led up to Amanda's suicide and learning of the manipulation and exploitation that traumatized Amanda and led her to being targeted by those who wanted to hurt even further. Perhaps one of the more troubling facts of this tragedy is that even after Amanda has taken her own life, people continue to insult her now including her suicide in their reasons for despising Amanda. For the Group Research Project I went on the Youtueb page for Amanda Todd and acted in the part of the "instigator" meaning that I purposefully left offensive and insulting remarks about Amanda Todd so that I may provoke a reaction and give an example of cyber bullying online.
I went a little over the top with my instigator comment and posted comments that knew would have a negative feedback. Sure enough within minutes of this post on the Amanda Todd video I received a substantial amount of down votes on the comment and other youtube users accusing me of being a terrible person for saying something so awful.