What many digital citizens do not realize when they harass their neighbors through digital means, is that they are hurting their own reputation.  To their family and friends, an individual who wastes time harassing people online may still be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but to a billion other people, they are going to look like a jerk.

When citizens harass others over a global public platform known as the World Wide Web, they do not just bully their victim, they harass the world.  With billions of people interacting online, a bully can never know who will take exception to their remarks.

• Would you walk up to a serial murderer or the relative of a violent criminal or gang member and harass them to their face, or call them a hurtful “four-letter-word?”

Everyone may want to think twice before harassing someone with digital technology:  Targeted victims, their friends or their family members could be the next Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (the shooters behind Columbine) or the next Charles Manson or Ted Bundy (serial killers).  Hurtful remarks may just move bullies to the head of a “kill list” ─ and it is not that hard to find anyone through the Internet.

If citizens author malicious or hurtful messages via digital technology, they are at the helm of the digital device when they draft a malicious message, and they are purposefully setting out to publicly harm and/or humiliate other individuals using a global public platform. Therefore, they are going to have to take the accountability for their actions, and more and more victims of cyber cruelty are taking action against their “bullies” as is illustrated in the following excerpt.

When a Georgia middle school student reported to police and school officials that she had been bullied on Facebook, they told her there was not much they could do because the harassment occurred off campus.  So the 14-year-old girl, Alex Boston, is using a somewhat novel strategy to fight back: She’s slapping her two classmates with a libel lawsuit. (TURNER & BLUESTEIN, 2012)

It is incredible how many people in this world will not speak directly to another individual about a problem or issue they have with them, but will, behind closed doors, “bravely” confront or “bully” them over the World Wide Web (yeah, there was a bit of sarcasm there).

So why is this happening so frequently in our digital community?

Digital technology offers the ability for instant gratification and physical separation where digital citizens no longer have to “tell someone off” in their minds or wait to tell them to their face.  With digital technology, citizens can tell someone off immediately from their desk, car, bed, wherever they are; whether the person they are upset with is around or not.  People can lash out at whomever has upset them, just when they are at their angriest and have the most hurtful and malicious things to say.  However, as is the case in any life situation, just because citizens can does not always mean that they should!

A hasty and harsh reaction to events, people and situations using digital technologies opens us up to many very serious issues and circumstances.  We do not have to look far past the following case to see that a real issue we are facing is the ability to instantly react.

“Wayne Treacy, (15), reportedly attacked Josie Ratley on March 17th, 2010 after she allegedly texted him a remark that he didn’t like concerning the recent suicide of his older brother.” (Olmeda, 2010)

While no one ever deserves to be physically attacked, without digital technology perhaps the “text” that allegedly “set Wayne off” never happens because of the “human filter;” it is much more difficult for many people to make a violent or hurtful comment to someone’s face than it is to write it on an (impersonal) digital tool.

Before the ability to instantly vent frustrations via text messages or the World Wide Web, we had a filter.  We may have yelled about someone to ourselves or a friend to “cool down” ─ but once we had a chance to vent, the situation passed, and may never have escalated.

Think about a time when you have been really frustrated at someone.  Maybe it was a boss, or a friend, or someone that just cut you off on the road.  Keep this moment in your mind, and now let us look at two different scenarios using your situation.

1) Offline:  If you had no digital technology or the Internet, how would you handle the situation?  Would you ever take time out of your day to call everyone in your town or the world to vent about what just happened?

Before digital technology, if someone made you angry at work, you may have yelled at them from inside your mind, or on the phone to a friend, or at home to a relative, making very harsh comments or judgments.  However, those words disappear into thin air.  Offline, your co-worker would not hear you ranting, and neither would the rest of the world, so what harm is really being done to your reputation, or theirs.

2) Digital:  Remembering the same frustrating situation, would you vent everything you thought in your head about the person that frustrated you with your digital technology or the World Wide Web?

Creating malicious or derogatory content about our digital neighbors on a global public platform is an extremely irresponsible act, and an egregious example of poor digital judgment because digitally (permanently) documenting anger and frustration does more than bring (potentially) global attention to the circumstance, it paints a picture of the author of that malicious content and gives others a negative perception of the citizen who’s venting.

Moments of anger will pass internally, but the irresponsibility of documenting it via digital technology ensures a citizen’s hateful words cannot be taken back once their anger subsides.  This kind of irresponsibility creates a lasting reputational blemish with potentially negative and haunting consequences!

All digital citizens, but especially adults, must understand this, because it is our responsibility to explain this to our children.  The second someone makes us angry is the second we can voice that opinion through digital technology.  We can vent that frustration to the world instantly, but I’ll reiterate, just because we can, does not mean we should!

Today, via digital technology we can instantly vent our venom, we can harass or attack immediately without having time to think about what we are doing, and when we act without a Digital Consciousness™, we neglect to understand that our reaction is one of permanence and may start a chain reaction of issues that will remain with us and our legacy.

Digital Technology has an infinite number of beneficial uses and conveniences, but attempting to publicly (and globally) damage another individual’s reputation or feelings is not one of them.  It is time to start using digital tools and technologies the way they are intended to be used ─ as powerful tools of convenience and constructive communication.

Digital citizens are going to learn the easy way or the hard way to stop misusing digital technology to harass their fellow digital neighbors, and it is my hope they will elect to take the easy way before a malicious message comes back to cost them a job, relationship, education or worse, as is illustrated in the following tragedy.

It started as a simple Twitter beef, 140-character spurts of anger by two young men who grew up together.  But the tough talk exploded out of cyberspace and onto the streets of Harlem, where a college student was gunned down feet from Gov. Paterson’s home. (Feeney, 2010)

Looking Ahead:

In our next installment – The Anon Syndrome -  we will take a look at online anonymity and offer insight into how and why future generations will ultimately discover that we – the cavemen of technology – faced enormous challenges once we created one of mankind’s worst misperceptions – the myth that we could truly be anonymous in a digital world.  Our digital pitfalls will lead to their [digital] promise.

Until next time – Cheers!

Reminder:  The information provided throughout this series has been extrapolated from the book, “Public and Permanent: The Golden Rule of the 21^st Century” (Guerry, 2011), which is being used as a guide by thousands of people across our global village to understand, practice and teach how to always remain safe and responsible when it comes to digital decision-making.

AUTHOR OVERVIEW

Richard Guerry Richard Guerry

Richard is the Executive Director of The Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication (IROC2) and the Author “Public and Permanent: The Golden Rule of the 21st Century”. He travels across the United States and Canada speaking to digital users, young and old, regarding the importance of practicing a Digital Consciousness in every aspect of life to avoid any current – or future – digital disease. Richard has presented over 500 workshops and assemblies since IROC2’s creation in 2009 and has been a featured speaker at many national conferences and conventions. Visit him online at http://www.iroc2.org/.

Tags: attack, Cyber bullying, harassment, social media