Please watch the video before reading my thoughts after the jump …
What I love about this video is that it perfectly translates online bullying to what it might look like in real life. The stage = blog or social networking site. The little girl personifies anonymous rant blogger but still grins and acts cute when she goes back to her non-public (offstage) life. The crowd are the lurkers reading the rant and the young girl who is the target of the bullying, her expressions look like they would if she was actually reading them on a computer monitor.
A lot has been said about this phenomenon happening among high school girls but I am thinking it is happening across all age groups across all issues represented in the blogosphere.
I am all for free speech but I would hope people would at least try to be adult and civil online just as they would offline. That doesn't mean stifling opinion or not getting into a spirited discussion. It does mean that bratty emotional 12 year olds won't be entertained until they decide to pull their act together and take personal responsibility for their words and actions.
Hat Tip: Joe Carter
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Great! I’ll be reposting this shortly and linking to you.
I’ve linked to you in these posts:
http://guitpicken61.vox.com/library/post/cyber-bullying-1.html
This one is restricted due to cyberbullies but I’ve got connections there
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=71865718&blogID=240110956&MyToken=9e62f0b6-8907-4df5-8757-60b26bc38281