Welcome!
This is my first blog post, not just for DMC, but my first blog post ever. I don't even know if calling this a "blog post" is the right term. Is that what the kids are calling it? I feel like I'm 60. I digress. If I hadn't have chosen this subject, I imagine I wouldn't have ever created a blog. Why?
I can't think of anything so important that I need to tell the whole world, but other than that, because blogs get so much hate! Those that have a blog are thought of as being self-indulgent, pretentious wankers. Those that give feedback on blogs or other social media sites (particularly youtube) are just downright mean.
Above all else, blogs, and other forms of social media, seem to be blamed for everything and anything that goes wrong.
Maybe this is the 60 year old in me coming out again, but this bewilders me. Whilst many people would love to believe that writing a few things in a public forum has the capability of changing lives and attitudes, personally, for the most part, I don't think it does. This view may change throughout the course of the subject, but right now, I believe that social media, generally, is more a whipping boy, than it is a medium which heavily affects lives.
There are many stories about young people committing suicide, supposedly because of cyber-bullying. Phoebe Prince, a 15 year old Irish immigrant living in America was one such example. It is clear that Prince was bullied on her Facebook page by a number of girls from her school, and this bullying led to her committing suicide.
The issue here though, is bullying, not Facebook. While Facebook was one of the main mediums through which Prince was bullied, it was not the direct cause of the bullying. Often, this seems to be forgotten. It's my belief that bullies will bully others in any way possible, they aren't created because of sites such as Facebook. Ten or so years ago, young people acting violently was often blamed on computer games. I believed this to be nothing more than a shirking of responsibility from parents, and those close to the people in question. These days, social networking sites seem to be blamed in a very similar way.
I'm twenty years old, and have never experienced cyber-bullying. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone who has. Cyber-bullying may have only become a more serious problem since I left high school less than three years ago, or perhaps, cyber-bullying isn't as prominent as some would have you believe. I would be interested to hear if anyone in my DMC class has experienced cyber-bullying, as I have no real knowledge of it happening.
Below is a link to an article I thought was interesting, listing a number of things that Facebook has been blamed for. "Leading children to suicide", which I have discussed briefly here, is just one thing on the list.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7521035/Facebook-what-social-networking-site-is-blamed-for-amid-syphilis-claims.html
Also, If you want to read about Phoebe Prince, google her like I did.
