Part one of Kate Kotler's column on why teens are in dire need of social education on what is respectful and appropriate behavior on the Internet...
Let’s face it: everyone loves a good flamewar. It’s endemic of the Internet culture - even the most sane, rational and level headed person loves to jump into the fray every once in a while and muck around down in the mud with the innerweb trolls. Level of snark, sharpness and ability to type pithy comebacks are highly valued amongst those who are denizens of cyberspace.
As someone who basically has grown up online, remembering the days of BBS, dial-up modems and the hugely technological advancement at the time of IM and chat clients such as ICQ and IRC, I have engaged in my fair share of muck throwing around the Internet. I am a delicate flower, you see; combined with the fact that for most of my 20’s I was morally indignant and thought I knew everything about everything, this was a perfect combination to make me troll bait.
Looking back, this seems humorous to me, as I find it silly that I got my knickers in a twist over dumb comments that someone made to me on IRC or LiveJournal. Though, it was also a learning experience which would prepare me for my career as a social networking site Community Manager - specifically working with teens and young adults.
There are many things I do in the course of the day on the website I’m charged with protecting. Sometimes it simply involves being a non-judgmental adult for a teen to talk to; sometimes it is putting the proverbial foot down to stop the teens from ripping each other to shreds; and, many times it is protecting these teens from being exposed to the dark and seedier sides of the Internet.
I think about that in the following manner: I was scarred for life the first time I saw Tubgirl and I’m 35. No 13 year old on the face of the planet should be exposed to that kind of graphic... fetish? I’m not even sure what to classify that as.
In that respect, I also find that a goodly amount of my time these days is spent educating teenagers on the appropriate and respectful uses of the Internet.
It seems that in constructing this awesome global community that no one - until very recently - has taken into effect the impact that a “no boundaries” information super highway would have on young people. Young people who desperately need structure and boundaries applied to them consistently so as to grow into healthy, productive, stable adults.
Take for example the group Anonymous. It is tricky to bring up this organization in any conversation about the Internet without exposing yourself to violent harassment at the hands of it’s members.
Originally Anonymous was an amusing Internet meme that proposed that those who tagged message board replies “anonymous” could be the same person. Chris Landers, of the Baltimore City Paper says,
“[Anonymous is] the first internet-based superconsciousness. Anonymous is a group, in the sense that a flock of birds is a group. How do you know they're a group? Because they're traveling in the same direction. At any given moment, more birds could join, leave, peel off in another direction entirely.”
Over the years Anonymous has had many offshoots - Project Chanology, Something Awful and others - who, while crass and borderline offensive, on the whole have provided amusement to adults.
I mean - LOLCats and Leetspeak wouldn’t have reached the height of popularity that they did in the early 2000s without Anon’s influence.
While gross and somewhat offensive; Anon and all it’s subcultures were, at root, funny.
Funny in a scatological way that only a particular subset of adults really appreciate - but, funny none the less. One might even stretch so far as to say that this snarky subculture has actually been good for the Internet culture, as a whole. Feel free to disagree with me; but, I still find the comment “User X: where’d you get that cool looking backwards d, man?” Anonymous: “It’s call a “b.”’ to be one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.
So where is the problem?
Like most Internet phenomenon's the clever, snarky adults from Anon have moved onto more interesting ways of taunting people on the Internet leaving Anonymous and the Chans in the the hands of adolescents.
I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed; but, teenagers are know for being angsty, feeling alienated from their peer groups and hateful towards the world.
Which is exactly why it's teens that need to be educated on what is appropriate, respectful behavior online.
Kate Kotler is a freelance writer from San Francisco, CA and is the Content & Community Manager of Meez.com.
Join us tomorrow for part two of Kate Kotler's "The Growing Need for Social Education on the Internet For Teens".
Image via Goof Up On A Star