Does the media create a douchebag effect?

Yes I do believe that new media technologies such as the internet, does create a douchebag effect. For example when you read comments made by users on Facebook, or Youtube or even under the artcles in the Globe and Mail website, people will say pretty horrific things. I believe that people say these things because they are hidden behind a computer screen and they won’t face any repercussions or be held accountable for the things they say. It also creates a douchebag effect in the sense that people are constantly embarrassing one another online. For example last week a  sixteen year old girl in Vancouver was drugged and gang raped at a rave. People took pictures of her being attacked and posted them on Facebook. Of course the girl and her family came across these pictures and they said, “Their daughter is forced to re-live the abuse everyday.” Like I can’t understand why people would think it is funny or entertainment to see a girl getting abused and sharing the photos. The only people who should have seen those photos shouldhave been the police.

Another example is my friend made an appearance on the show Jersey Shore, and one of her classmates in her journalism class, made a blog and posted embarassing pictures of her online, and exposed the girl’s personal information such as her school, program of study and workplace. Like why did this person feel the need to go out of their way to publicly embarass someone else online with a bunch of people who probably don’t even know this girl. Especially give away this girls personal information, leaving her to be prone to stalkers. Of course this blog was written by an “anonymous” author.

This class talks a lot about privacy. Dr. Strangelove said, “There is no real privacy online”. I believe this is true because anything that you publish online can be traced back to an IP address, and you will be found one way or another. Anything published on facebook belongs to Facebook. Quite possibly if you delete something off your page who knows if the info actually disappears or if it is stored somewhere on the Facebook servers. I remember a couple years ago when the Elliot Spitzer scandal became rampant in the media and newspapers took photos off the call girls facebook page and published them on the front page of the newspapers. For some reason I highly doubt the newspapers asked the is women for her permission or reimbursed her, for the mass distribution of her personal photos.

Privacy is unequally distributed. Some have it, most don’t. Everything about us is known or can be known. Yes I do agree, but I am sure a lot of people can find ways to disappear off of the radar, or hide things about themselves before it is released.