The Internet has become a place where online users are able to interact
and give feedback making it a shared experience. Since social media platforms
such as Twitter have become very widely used, exchanging ideas in a virtual
setting has become extremely common. People no longer have to express their
thoughts and ideas in person and feel it will hurt their image. The virtual
world instead, allows for individuals to somewhat hide behind a screen and
express whatever is on their mind. It becomes an ethical issue when topics of
religion, race, politics, etc. are mentioned freely and are not thought out in
an ethical manner. Social media platforms are infamously known for the
arguments that arise back and forth between users when sensitive issues are
brought up.
Race is a great example of topics that are brought up throughout
different social media platforms, in both a negative and positive light. When
these arguments are brought to the users attention it can either inform them
about issues that they may not have known before and allow them to express
their beliefs in a civil manner or bring about misleading or false information
that might even hurt the specific races reputation. This type of negative
impact can be called Racial Formation Theory, which means that race is always
changing. Now, race changing is not the issue, the way it changes is. When
individuals post about their certain beliefs about a race it can misconstrue
someone else’s ideas. The Internet allows others to help shift our thoughts and
can become an issue. We sometime believe things that do not have back up or
evidence.
If you use social media platforms regularly do you come across these
types of discussions or arguments? Do you think these arguments or statements
can cause change among the readers’ initial beliefs or thoughts? How can it be
negative or positive?
I enjoy going on things like facebook, twitter and reddit and I must say that if you kinda think about it, the type of social media can determine whether it's "cool" or not to have those kinds of discussions. For example, Facebook in my opinion is ok to talk about certain things that may be race related because (for the most part) you are talking about these topics with your friends, who may have the same opinion as you. Twitter on the other hand would not be because of the limitations of how much you can write per tweet. I think it can be positive depending on who you're speaking to, but overall I think if you're talking with random people, it's bound to get "nasty."
ReplyDeleteIt's completely illegal, but before my boss makes any hiring decisions, she looks at intern candidates Facebook and Twitter pages. There have been a few times when she's found questionable posts on their pages. I've heard stories of her finding posts with incredibly ignorant and even blatantly racist comments.
ReplyDeleteEven though it's illegal, I'm sure my boss isn't the only one who does this. So if people's morals aren't enough to keep them from posting such content, then you would think that the risk of a future employer seeing it would be.