Thursday, October 27, 2011

"Conclusion"

I know we were supposed to avoid making sweeping conclusions and all-inclusive statements about digital technologies and how they affect the human experience.  But after all that I have read, even the information that I did not have time to post about, I believe (as the title conveys) that the Internet provides both a place for cyber-bullying to occur and also a place for people to fight cyber-bullying and its consequences.  Basically, the Internet can be used both for bad and for good.  That is definitely NOT a brilliant new conclusion.

Bullying is not something that is going away.  There is research proving that it is evolving and we do not have a full understanding of how it is currently happening in schools.  Cyber-bullying can be present at every college in the U.S. with websites like JuicyCampus and CollegeACB that provide anonymous forums to gossip about fellow students.  At every level of education, there are always going to be the "popular kids" and the "dorks" at every school.  I can only hope that the plethora of information that the Internet provides on the prevention of cyber-bullying reaches people before another person's happiness has to be affected. 

Join the Anti-Bullying Movement

Like basically anything that you can search on the Internet, cyber-bullying and cyber-bullying prevention comes up with an overwhelming about of information.   I began with a news website that I frequent almost daily, CNN.com.  It turns out that Anderson Cooper 360° had a week-long series starting back on October 10, 2011 that focused on taking a stand against bullying.  There was also going to be a town hall meeting held at Rutgers marking one-year anniversary of Tyler Clementi’s suicide
Tyler Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge last September after his roommate at Rutgers University secreted taped him with another man in their shared dorm room and then posted it on the Internet.  According to ABC News, Two students are being charged with invasion of privacy after one tweeted about the video.  Clementi is another name that I have come across multiple times while doing this study.
CNN was teaming up with Facebook, Cartoon Network, and Time Inc. for the “Bullying: It Stops Here” campaign.  What especially interested me in this event is that Anderson Cooper planned on featuring Dr. Robert Faris, the sociologist whose work I discussed in my blog entry entitled “New and Improved Bullies” and the results of the study that the New York Times article was discussing.  Cooper says: “The problem of bullying is far more complex than it is often portrayed, and while there are no easy solutions, we’ve learned some things that lead me to believe that with enough attention, we can make life better for kids.”    
This article explains that  this Special Report featured celebrities like Glee’s Jane Lynch, Dr. Phil, Kelly Ripa, and Rosalind Wiseman (author of “Queen Bees and Wannabees” which inspired the movie “Mean Girls”).   
I think it is a great and interesting thing that the study by Faris is being made public by Anderson Cooper, the other sponsors, and celebrities who want to help the cause.  Getting celebrities involved can be the way to go to get people’s attention.  TheEllenShow tweeted on October 12, 2011: “Today is Unity Day.  Wear orange in support of kids who have been bullied.  I am. #bekind.”  That is a tweet I found within one minute of looking on the pages of famous people that I follow.   Ellen has almost eight million followers, so hopefully her message will influence at least one of them.
Here is the link to clips of the town hall that aired two weeks ago (since I conveniently did not read this article until now, I could not find any whole episodes). 
In addition to social media websites and news websites, I found a website by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, that has a special feature on Internet Safety –Cyber-bullying and Cyber-stalking.  This contains publications and scholarly research related to cyber-bullying.  There are articles by the U.S. Department of Education and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Federal Trade Commission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Harvard University.  There are also links to many websites sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Crime Prevention Council, and the U.S. Department of Health (just to name a few).  It shows that many people and organizations in our country are looking into the problem of cyber-bullying and attempting to educate the public on how to start preventing this problem.

Social Media Prevention Measures


The extremely popular websites Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have been doing their part to provide resources and tips for what to do if you or someone you know is a victim on their website.
On Facebook, I went  to the “Help Center” which I could find just under the “Log Out” button on the top navigation bar.  On that page, I saw a section titled “Report Abuse and Policy Violations” which listed: Spam, Hacked accounts, Impersonated Profile, Bullying, and Intelletual Property Infringement as examples of this.  On the next page, the “Bullying” link can be found under “Report a Violation” and I have included the screenshot below.

On Twitter, I basically found the “Help” section in the same way.  It was located on my top navigation bar by the button used for logging out of an account.  The Twitter Help Center is divided into sections and under “Report a violation” the examples include: Hacked accounts, reporting spam, trademark violations, impersonation, and safety…The link that I thought would be most helpful if I was dealing with a bully was under “Safety Center” and titled “Abusive Users.”  On that page, which I have a screenshot of below, the first section is about how to not be a bully on Twitter.

 
On YouTube, I scrolled to the bottom of the page and found a link titled “Safety.”  When you reach the Safety Center, there is a list where you can click which issue applies to you.  I selected “Harrassment and Cyberbullying” which led me to a page where I could select “United States.”  That lead me to the page that I have a screenshot of below.  In addition to that information, there is a video (obviously) entitled Cyberbullying: Solutions for Parents and the National Crime Prevention Council’s “Tips for preventing cyberbulling.”
 

Public Service Announcements

Now that I have identified "social media" as one of my keywords, I was thinking about websites that have not yet been brought up yet in the news articles I have read.  One of these is YouTube.  Anyone can create and upload a video to YouTube and share it with the online world.  It is considered a "content community" type of social media website according to Wikipedia

When I searched "cyber-bullying" on YouTube, I was about given 15,800 results.  There were homemade videos, clips from news websites, and different public service announcements.  Two specific videos that I found very effective are posted below.  They are from the Ad Council were uploaded by the OhioCommissionDRCM.





I think the message of these videos are very powerful.  Watching these hurtful words come out of seemingly sweet little girls seems strange and wrong.  But, it can be girls that look like this who say mean things online to others.  I have mentioned and quoted others in previous entries about how people feel more comfortable hiding behind a computer or a text message and then saying things that they never would in person.

I also agree with a comment on the first video that reads: "The only thing I disagree with about this ad campaign is the advice to delete. I would absolutely print it out and bring it to the offender's school teachers and principal. I'd also save it in case legal action becomes necessary. I wouldn't destroy the evidence." I know that I have been discussing cases in which the outcome has been extreme (suicide of the victim).  But, after re-interviewing the people that I did about the bullying and cyber-bullying at my high school, it never seems to early to keep hurtful conversations if you ever need to hold someone accountable for the things that they say through social media.

Update: Central Question and Keywords

My original idea was that I would continue researching famous cases and doing different blog entries about all the different social media websites that were utilized by people in cyber-bullying.  However, I am almost depressed to keep doing this.  I have already discussed MySpace and AOL Instant Messenger in the two famous cases so far. 

One of the reasons I wanted to stop looking into famous cases of bullying is because of the article I read on Alexis Pilkington.  When I searched for "famous cyber-bullying cases," the second article that Google showed me was Cyberbullying Continued After Teen's Death.  Alexis Pilkington used the website FoamSpringMe.com, whose tag line reads: "Find out more about your friends by asking and responding to interesting questions."  Her parents have said it was much more than Internet harassment that caused Alexis' suicide, but the scary fact in this case is that nasty comments did not stop even after Alexis was dead.  This additional CBS article states that someone posted anonymously: "She was obviously a stupid depressed [expletive] who deserved to kill herself.  she got what she wanted. be happy for her death. rejoice in it."  A father of one of her friends compiled all the harassing posts on her the memorial page created of Facebook.  I tried to find this page myself on Facebook, and was a little happy to find pages dedicated to deleting FoamSpringMe.com, pages about anti-bullying, and a page about the non-profit memorial foundation dedicated to her. 

My central question in my first entry was simple and I wanted to look how the Internet contributed to bullying and the whole creation of the idea of cyber-bullying.  However, now I want to begin to conduct research on how the Internet can also help spread the message that cyber-bullying is something that our society will not tolerate and is actively working to stop.

Some keywords that I have developed, some of which I have not identified yet in the blog but will in future entries.
  • Bullying
  • Cyber-bullying
  • Social media
  • Popularity
  • Anti-bullying movements

Ethnography Interview


My little brother graduated from high school back in May.  I literally spent the entire graduation weekend saying how I could not believe he was a senior and about to go off to college.  Joseph especially enjoyed senior year of high school because he had a lot of friends from many different groups and cliques.  He had his marching band friends, his garage band friends (I will never miss them practicing in our basement), and his lacrosse friends.  My parents and I have talked since the summer of 2010 about how he suddenly grew up.  

I was completely jealous of their graduation ceremony.  It was outside on a gorgeous day (when I had to graduate in our gym and only invite 4 people to the ceremony), the speeches were not all the same, and the got to use confetti poppers at the end.  However, my mom said I should not be jealous of the girls in the class of 2011 and she had never been happier that Joseph was a boy.  Apparently, most of the girls in the senior class (including two that I used to babysit for many years) all experienced the wrath of a girl named Alex.

I heard many stories that weekend from my brother, my mom, and my mom’s friends and their daughters.  I re-interviewed them after I started this project and even e-mailed with some former teachers at my school.

Joseph
My brother was not oblivious to the drama that was going on with all the girls in the senior class.  However, as a boy and also someone who has never cared about drama and popularity, he was mostly an observer.  He told me that back in October, for reasons that he never knew, Alex decided to completely stop speaking to her friend and field hockey teammate named Sydney.  He believes Sydney was spending more time with other friends than the girls on the team.  Alex’s harassment of Sydney in person and also over Facebook and Instant Messenger got so bad that Sydney quit field hockey completely.  In October, Sydney and Alex’s best friend Taylor were both nominated for Homecoming court.  Sydney dropped out of the race after Alex told her over an Instant Message: “When you step out on the field, we will get the whole stadium to boo you.”  Sydney dropped out of the race.  Joseph told me that he thinks that Taylor could have been the one to stop Alex.  Instead, she enjoyed watching the drama play out and encouraged her to be the ultimate mean girl.

Ann Cowper
Mrs. Cowper has been my neighbor in Fredericksburg since we moved in.  Her daughter Fay graduated with Joseph this past spring.  I used to babysit Fay and her two younger siblings for many years.  I can’t believe how grown-up she was when I saw her at graduation and when she friended me on Facebook.  Mrs. Cowper was at our house for Joseph’s party.  She told me she had spoken with many of the mothers of girls in the senior class about Alex.  Sydney’s parents actually ended up going to the school with copies of the online conversations because Alex’s bullying had turned into threats.  She was suspended for a week in October, but only after the administration witnessed her saying something at school.  Apparently, just like in the case with Ryan Halligan, the schools were not prepared to deal with bullying that was occurring on the Internet.  Mrs. Cowper was nervous because Fay hung out in the same group of girls as Alex.  Fay became a target in the spring.  She was good friends with Alex’s ex-boyfriend and set him up with one of her friends from a different school.  Fay received a text message right before graduation that said: “I will kill you.”  Mrs. Cowper says she is sure that Fay had been dealing with things like this for a few weeks before she was even aware of it.  Mrs. Cowper immediately told Fay she was not allowed to go to beach week and stay in a house with Alex for a week.  She also made an appointment with a vice-principal at my high school.  Just because the girls had graduated, she wanted the school to know that Alex’s suspension clearly did not affect her in the slightest.  Mrs. Cowper wants something to be changed before she had to watch her youngest daughter go through the same thing in a couple of years. 

Stacy Churchill
Mrs. Churchill's daughter Emily was another neighbor that I used to babysit and a classmate of Joseph and Fay.  My brother hung out with Emily because they were both into going to local band shows.  Emily’s boyfriend played in a band that was very popular at the high school.  Mrs. Churchill knew about Alex through the gossip, and also when Emily received a Facebook message from her saying that she was not invited to the alternative prom that Alex and her friends were throwing.  Mrs. Churchill said she was amazed how this girl’s meanness had no limits.  Sydney had moved on and was hanging out with a new group of friends, and Mrs. Churchill thought Alex just needed someone new to pick on to feed her need for attention.  She said she was so proud of her daughter when Emily just chose to ignore her.    

Mr. Andrews and Mrs. Pierce
Mr. Andrews has been a senior English teacher at my high school for over thirty years.  Mrs. Pierce has been the senior class advisor for many years before I was in high school.  Both teachers are adults that students feel comfortable coming to with their problems and are around the seniors enough to know what is going on with the class.  Mr. Andrews told Mrs. Cowper that in all of his years teaching and also told me in a recent e-mail: “I have never seen meaner girls than Alex and her two friends.”  After THIRTY years at Stafford.  Mrs. Pierce met with many mothers who were concerned about their daughters’ well-being and was disheartened when she could not get the administration to care.  She also told me that she cannot ever remember seeing someone who acted the way Alex did.  She saw her try and single-handily divide the groups of girls.  She saw her try and dictate who could paint-up before football games, who could come to parties, and like I mentioned above, who could come to the alternative prom.  Mrs. Pierce told me, “You think teachers might not notice this things, but Alex did not even try to hide her behavior from adults because her parents let her get away with everything.”

Hearing this happen at my own high school makes me extremely sad.  When I was a senior, of course there were different cliques.  When you are in a class of almost 500 people, not everyone can be friends.  I even admit, I was part of a clique who had a name...But, because we were all so excited about being seniors, we tailgated together, went to all the important senior events together, and had a phenomenal last year at Stafford High.  I am so sad that did not happen for the girls in my brother’s class.  I am so happy that he did not have to worry about being bullied because he was a boy.  

These interviews support the first article that I read about bullying these days: it is about a power struggle to be popular.  It was not a group of people picking on and singling out one person.  It was basically one person (and the select few girls that she deemed worthy to be her friend) trying to put down as many other people as possible in order to stay on top.   She might have the kind of personality that just draws people to her, and takes advantage of that by being manipulative and hurtful.  It also supports the quote from Ryan Halligan’s father at the end of my last blog post: the computer helps to facilitate the bullying so it can happen at school and then continue at home.  Joseph’s last text to me about this situation was: “Sydney’s bullying was a mix of online and in person, but the online conversations were definitely a factor in getting Alex suspended.  Too bad it really only stopped her from being a b*tch right in front of our teachers.” 

My interviews were done through Skype with my brother, phone calls with Mrs. Cowper and Mrs. Churchill (although I had talked to all of them in person about this over the summer) and e-mails with Mr. Andrews and Mrs. Pierce. 

Famous Cases in the United States - Part 2

Ryan Halligan 


Ryan Halligan is another name that has come up on multiple websites while I have perused for information about cyber-bullying.  Like Megan Meier, Wikipedia actually has a whole page about his suicide.  He hanged himself in 2003 at the age of thirteen.  


Ryan’s parents, John and Kelly Halligan, have been working ever since to spread the word about what happened to Ryan and to lobby for new laws in Vermont.  They have done interviews with PBS Frontline and Oprah Winfrey.  Unfortunately, the Oprah video cannot be imbedded into this page. 


The bullying started at school and escalated at home through the use of AOL Instant Messenger.  According to the PBSFrontline article and Wikipedia, the bullying began as early as 5th grade because Ryan had a learning disability.  John said that he told his son to ignore the bully.  In the seventh grade, Ryan told his parents he was starting to become friends with one of the bullies.  That ended in the bully spreading the rumor that Ryan was gay.


During the summer, the gay rumor continued and Ryan was made fun of over AIM.  He did not share with his parents the extent of the instant messengers and e-mails.  John also said he did not realize how much time Ryan was spending online.  John told PBS: “I have been blown away with how this whole technology has evolved into being a critical part of their social life and their socialization among themselves. It's more than just having a conversation. It's about how they portray themselves, their screen name, to me, that's like what they wear to school…”


Ryan was also chatting regularly with a girl that he liked.  When Ryan approached her in school, she told him “look, you’re just a loser…” in front of all her friends.  His response was,  “It’s girls like you who make me want to kill myself.”  The next month, Kelly found her son’s body hanging in his bathroom.


John found out a plethora of information after he started investigate Ryan’s AIM account.   He even found out about a boy Ryan was talking to who was thinking about also taking his life.  In his PBS Frontline interview, John says: [Kids] are coming home, and they're getting right onto the computer, and the drama continues right into the evening. Nobody is taking a break. And they're acting out and behaving in a way that they would never in person, especially in front of adults. ... There's just no check and balances occurring online.”


Most of the information that I have found about Ryan’s death is through interviews like these that his parents have done to raise awareness of cyber-bullying.  The Halligans created a website in Ryan’s memory and it contains an archive of how they are spreading their story through radio, television, and student presentations.  It contains resources for schools and other parents.  Ryan Halligan’s father has done a lot of reflection about his son’s death and does his part to hope that no one parent will experience what he has gone through. 


“I can't blame the computer. The computer and the Internet were not the cause of my son's suicide, but I believe they helped amplify and accelerate the hurt and the pain that he was trying to deal with that started at school and in person in the real world…”

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Confessions

I think that one of the most interesting things that we have read is the chapter in Alone Together called “True Confessions.”  Turkle’s chapter and our class discussion focused primarily on how future [theoretical] relationships with robots and online relationships may cause us to expect less out of all our relationships.  We also discussed how confessional sites, specifically PostSecret, could be therapeutic for people wanting to let go and share a secret, combined with artistic expression.  As someone who has definitely looked at that particular website a few times, I enjoyed hearing the stories and interviews of people Turkle found to be frequently confess their thoughts and feelings online.

Anonymity is the reason why people feel comfortable participating in things like PostSecret.  “[It] takes as its premise the notion that you can deal with feelings without dealing directly with a person” (231).  This idea can also be related to cyber-bullying.  Bullies can project their negative words and emotions at others from behind their own safety net of a fake MySpace profile or a conversation through AOL Instant Messenger.  “People say outrageous thing, even when they are not anonymous.  These days, on social networks, we see fights that escalate for no apparent reason except that there is no physical presence to exert a modulating force” (235-236).  

The comment feature on confessional sites can lead people to bully strangers.  The people that Turkle interview say that they realize it is easier to be a bully online than in person.  It is easier to hurt others as an anonymous Internet user.  And it is especially easy to be rude and nasty to someone that you do not know and never will.

While related, I would not exactly define these actions discussed in this chapter as cyber-bullying.   I feel like a significant part of the definition found in my first blog post is that bullying consists of “repeated” actions.  While online confessional sites and websites that allow comments also allow an outlet not only for other’s opinions, but their anger as well.  “It is an endemic on the Internet.  There is no barrier to displacement, no barrier to rage” (237).  It might not be cyber-bullying, but people’s personal stories and feelings have the potential to be ripped apart by anyone with a strong opinion and access to a computer.  Should people be aware that this might come with the territory of posting online?

References:
Turkle, Sherry.  Alone Together.  New York: Basic Books, 2011.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Famous Cases in the United States - Part One

To begin this blog entry, I started by typing “famous cyber-bullying cases” into Google.  Obviously.  It is just natural.  The second link, conveniently titled "Famous Cases of Cyberbullying," had a list of cases that gained media attention over the last ten or so years.  The list was broken up by country and regions around the world.  I guess I did not even start to think about cases that occurred outside the U.S.  But, the Internet reaches people across the globe; of course using the Internet to bully is bound to be a growing problem worldwide.

However, I decided to focus on certain cases in the United States that I have heard of before, or have already seen mentioned in articles that I have linked.   One of the most well known cases and a name that has popped up is:

Megan Meier

The "Famous Cases" website just gives a small summary of how Meier was bullied online.  Meier, age thirteen, had a falling out with a friend and neighbor.  The mother of the friend, Lori Drew, made a fake MySpace profile and posed as a sixteen-year-old boy named Josh Evans.  “Evans” added Megan and struck up a friendship.  According to the Wikipedia page about her suicide and the ABC News Article, Drew wanted to get personal information from Meier and use it against her (an employee of Drew also admitted to using the fake account).

“Evans” claimed to be new in the Missouri town in which Meier lived.  On October 15, 2006, his messages became unfriendly and quickly turned hostile.  One message read: I don't know if I want to be friends with you any longer because I hear you're not nice to your friends.”  Meier’s father found the last exchanges between his daughter and “Evans” on AOL Instant Messenger in which “Evans” told her: "Everybody in O'Fallon knows how you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you."

Only twenty minutes later, Meier’s mother found her body hanging in her closet.  She died the next day.  The case did not gain media attention for about a year because of the FBI investigation into Drew's MySpace hoax.  According to Wikipedia and a New York Times News article, in 2008, “the state of Missouri...revise[d] its harassment laws in response to the case, updating them to cover harassment through computers and mobile phone messaging, and creating a new crime to cover adults 21 and over harassing children under the age of 18.”  Because there was no such law in place before Meier’s suicide, Lori Drew was not prosecuted in Missouri. 

Ironically, Drew became a victim of internet harassment herself.  Someone published her phone number and address online and her house ended up being vandalized.  The “Famous Cases” page also linked me to an article in Wired Magazine that quotes Drew’s attorney discussing how she has been “an Internet punching bag for almost three years having been tried, convicted, and lynched by bloggers.” This article itself has 87 comments (the most recent was only three months ago) and the majority of people are debating the federal case against Drew.  But, within the first twenty or so, Lori Drew is called:

·      An asshole
·      A predator
·      Twisted and sick
·      A sack of nauseating blubber
·      Immoral and despicable

Although Megan Meier had a history of depression, the court of public opinion is overwhelming convicting Lori Drew as playing a role in Meier’s suicide.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

New & Improved Bullies

 It takes little to no effort on my part to find information online about cyber-bullying.  Search results include examples of how kids, teenagers, and young adults are cyber-bullied and famous cases.  However, more search results show how people are making a stand and trying to prevent cyber-bullying.  There is actually an overwhelming amount of information on the subject that I need to begin sorting through…

While browsing our Wiki, I came across the article “Web of Popularity, Achieved by Bullying” on the “Consider This” page.  This New York Times article explores a study done by The American Sociological Review and research done at the University of California, Davis.  The results are interesting because they say there needs to be a change in how we perceive both the victim and the bully.  

Students want to be part of the popular crowd, and some will go above and beyond to make that happen.  Robert Faris, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis says:  “What we think often is going on is that this is part of the way kids strive for status. Rather than going after the kids on the margins, they might be targeting kids who are rivals.”  The study explores the way high school students are going after other students, even peers who they claim to be friends with, who might threaten their own social standing.  Overall, the research proved about one third of the students he studied are involved in “aggressive behavior” which included physical violence, gossip  Dr. Faris states that students who are isolated and unpopular are still getting picked on, but they aren’t the main targets anymore.   “The overall rate of aggression seems to increase as status goes up. What it suggests is that a student thinks they get more benefit to going after somebody who is a rival.”

I think this is an important article on how bullying is changing over time.  Not only are bullies taking to the internet and engaging in many different technologies to make their peers feel bad about themselves, they can no longer be stereotyped as someone big and mean picking and harassing someone that is small and alone.  Popularity in middle-school and high-school can consume some people and now those are the people who are becoming the bullies.  I am interested to start learning how big a role the internet plays in facilitating their actions.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Beginning...

As I start to research and think about cyber-bullying, I break it down to think of the human experience as happiness and self-worth and how the internet can affect that.  Specifically, I started to study and research instances of people taking bullying online and the effects that can have on people’s self-esteem. 

To begin, I started with basic online searches of the definition of “cyber-bullying.”   Naturally, the first page that I look at is Wikipedia.  Their basic definition is “the use of the Internet and related technologies to harm other people in a deliberate, repeated, and hostile manner.”

Wikipedia also led me to Billy Belsey’s website.  He is the man credited with creating the first definition of cyber-bullying: “"Cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others."

This website has examples of the forms that cyber-bullying might take.  While I mentioned “bullying online” above, Belsey breaks it down into how cyber-bullying can be done through e-mail, Instant Messaging (IM), websites, chat rooms, etc.  Another look at bullying through electronics is through text messaging.  It isn’t necessarily on the Internet, but since most cellphones these days do have access to the web, it all seems connected.

I plan to research and blog more about cyber-bullying and the facts that many different organizations have researched and put on the Internet and in books.  Currently my central question is simply: How does the Internet contribute to bullying?