Homework for 4/27

Social media has drastically changed the way people socialize. People have been known to be more hostile when a screen is in-between them. The New York Times did an article on Yik Yak’s presents at the University of Eastern Michigan saying, “Eastern Michigan is one of a number of universities whose campuses have been roiled by offensive ‘yaks.’  Since the app was introduced a little more than a year ago, it has been used to issue threats of mass violence on more than a dozen college campuses . . .” (Mahler). This is a form of cyber-bullying, which is becoming more common as more people join social media. Another form of online hostility is trolling, which is when people make extreme efforts to offend others. These forms of Internet cruelty have a serious effect on all of those who use the Internet for socializing and communicating. One solution to curing this online civility involves stopping it before it begins. If young generations were taught how to socialize online in schools, many cases of cyber-bullying and trolling could be stopped. The Internet is constantly changing and future generations should be taught how to correctly go about socializing and communicating with it. By enforcing schools to have classes that teach students proper etiquette when on the Internet, it could solve our online civility issue. In this paper, I will focus on three main areas that these classes can teach to help improve online civility.

Homework for 4/22

Osnews.com describes what trolling is and what we can do to stop it. This could be a useful text to help me explain why it is important to teach kids in school proper online communication because the website specifically discusses what trolling is, ways to stop it, and why it is done. On the other had, opendemocracy.net focuses on more of online discourse and “not feeding the trolls.” This can help by giving examples of ways to teach kids how to interact with trolls, while the other website could explain how kids could recognize trolling. Lastly, the academia.edu website focuses primarily on online civility. It discusses why it is an issue, what can be done about it, and how it can be improved. This is a great source for all of these areas are vital to creating a good paper on teaching kids in school proper online communication.

Homework for 4/20

1) Google Search: "online civility"
First page, second result- http://www.academia.edu/2538089/Improving_Online_Civility
1,890,000 results
2)Google Search: "online civility"
First Page- https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/sally-kohn/dont-feed-trolls-cultivating-civility-online
1,890,000 results
3) Google Search: "solutions to trolling"
First page, first result- http://www.osnews.com/story/25540/Why_People_Troll_and_How_to_Stop_Them/
1,400,000 results

Human Civility in the Online World

Dane Hollar 

Christopher Werry

April 15, 2015

RWS 200

 

Human Civility in the Online World

Throughout the past decade, the Internet has changed the way we as a society socialize. Social media has allowed for people to bring their thoughts and ideas to one location for millions of people to view and add their own opinion into discussions. Although social media sites are able to link peoples thoughts and ideas on sites such as: Yik Yak, Facebook, Twitter, or even games like Clash of Clans, they have also made room for users to be cruel, mean, and to judge or bully others on a global scale. For the most part, during the 20^th century, bullying was done in person, or should I say, face to face. But the dotcom era has drastically changed the way people show their emotions and opinions in the form of cyber-bullying and trolling, which is when people make extreme efforts to offend others. Most of these cyber-bullies and trolls may not know who they are targeting and are just trying to get a rise out of people by starting a negative feud amongst users. People tend to be crueler towards one another when they have a screen in between them instead of being at the same place to settle their issues. Anonymity in the online world has created a safe haven for trolls and cyber-bullies while they disrupt other online users. The New York Times did an article on Yik Yak’s presents at the University of Eastern Michigan saying, “Eastern Michigan is one of a number of universities whose campuses have been roiled by offensive ‘yaks.’  Since the app was introduced a little more than a year ago, it has been used to issue threats of mass violence on more than a dozen college campuses . . .” (Mahler). Human civility has become an important topic due to trolls and cyber-bullies and the question that needs to be answered is: what can be done to stop cyber-bullying and trolling? Throughout this paper, I will analyze three potential solutions: refusal of anonymity, creating smarter algorithms, and allowing users to have more control over what their peers are allowed to say, which can potentially solve this question and improve human civility in the online atmosphere. 

Anonymity has boosted self-confidence amongst online users because they are more confident in presenting their opinions to their audiences without being able to be judged. Anonymity can be done in multiple ways, such as allowing users to make up their own names, like on Twitter, and not showing names when people comment, like on Yik Yak. This has proven to work both positively and negatively in the online community. Those of whom wish to have a pleasant and well informed discussion are able to do so while being anonymous. They feel safe from the others negative comments for other users are not always entirely sure as to who initiated the conversation. This is especially useful in young adults and youths that frequently use online social media, such as Yik Yak, for some of those users have social or depression issues and cannot handle being judged by others. Not only does it affect younger generations, but older generations as well. Our economy is global and many business deals and transactions are done over the World Wide Web. Many of these business men and women use online sites to discuss topics in their fields, which have been disrupted by trolls and cyber-bullies. Sites such as Reuters, which is a website meant for discussions on news and business, has been abused by trolls and cyber-bullies. Reuters recently “announced that it would start to block anonymous comments and require users to register with their names and e-mail addresses in an effort to curb ‘uncivil behavior’” (Zhuo). Banning anonymity is an attempt to discourage trolls and cyber-bullies from disrupting the social norm on websites. If the anonymity feature is active, it allows trolls and cyber-bullies to repeatedly present condescending remarks upon a conversation without anybody knowing who it is. It is essentially giving both the trolls or cyber-bullies and those that are thoroughly into the conversation a chance to express themselves whether it be to disrupt the argument or not. Anonymity works for those who do not wish to be known or judged in the online community, but does not present a way to limit the number of trolls or cyber-bullies. 

            To understand the technological view of social media, it is relevant to understand that all social media sites are embedded with algorithms that control different aspects of the site. Some of these algorithms control what it’s users can and cannot say, the number of characters they can use, the anonymity factor, and many more limitations. However, for a lot of social media websites, there are loopholes to these algorithms, the algorithms are non-existent, or the algorithms are not smart enough to prevent trolls and cyber-bullies from exploiting the site. Natasha Lomas, a writer for techcrunch.com says:  “Trolls will always want to shout loudly, but let’s hope our algorithms aren’t always so dumb as to actively help
subvert online social spaces that should be rich” (Lomas). In many cases, these algorithms are very weak and make it easy for trolls and cyber-bullies to wreak havoc on online socializing sites. If smarter and more dependable algorithms are created, it could potentially decrease the amount of negativity being spread across the Internet. Lomas also mentions: “the technology industry needs far smarter algorithms that do more than take a crude measure of volume to determine which content floats to the top . . . making it harder for trolls to mobilize to subvert platforms for their own fringe ends.”  The smarter the algorithm, the more difficult it will be for a troll to hack into a site and disturb other users. These smarter algorithms would help to bring balance to the online civility and create a safer environment for social media site’s users. This solution seems promising, but there is no guarantee that by creating smarter algorithms, the trolls do not become smarter and figure out new ways to work around them. 

Reporting and flagging are becoming increasingly more common amongst social media sites. These features allow for users that spot unjust behavior to get the moderator’s of the site attention. Blogger frandallfarmer writes a well-informed article on “The Universal Rules of Civilized Discourse”, and he says “When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention” (Frandallfarmer). These moderators are almost like the policemen of the site. They keep order when it is needed and have the ability to kick any user off of a discussion if they are disrupting it. The reporting or flagging feature narrows down to what was millions of users per site to a much smaller group of people that could potentially be trolls or cyber-bullies. This feature presents a promising solution to limiting the number cyber-bullies and trolls that frequent sites. 

            Ultimately, there will always be trolls and cyber-bullies, but there are ways of preventing them from disrupting social media sites. Overall the best tactic would be combining the strategies of creating smarter algorithms and enforcing the report/flag feature on all social media sites while not allowing users to be anonymous. The smarter algorithms help to control the online civility and make it more difficult for trolls and cyber-bullies to disrupt other users. The report/flag feature allows for the users to report when they see accounts of trolling or cyber-bullying. Taking anonymity out of the picture will make most trolls and cyber-bullies more timid to make offensive comments and attempt to consistently disturb public discussions. With a staff moderating the site and taking into account what is being reported, cyber-bullies and trolls can be spotted much more quickly and easily than without them. If all three of these features are embedded in social media sites, the number of troll and cyber-bully encounters will decrease. 

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Frandallfarmer. "Blog." Atom. Discourse.org, 10 Mar. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://blog.discourse.org/2013/03/the-universal-rules-of-civilized-discourse/>.

Lomas, Natasha. "#Gamergate Shows Tech Needs Far Better Algorithms." TechCrunch. AOL Inc., 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/18/gamergate-tactics/>.

Mahler, Jonathan. "Who Spewed That Abuse? Anonymous Yik Yak App Isn’t Telling." The New York Times. The New York Times, 08 Mar. 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/09/technology/popular-yik-yak-app-confers-anonymity-and-delivers-abuse.html?_r=0>.

Zhuo, Julie. "Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt." The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Nov. 2010. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/opinion/30zhuo.html>.