Social media has become such a big part of present day life that sometimes I think people have great new technological ideas but don't stop to think about the effects that their idea could have on society. A very good example of this is Ask.fm. A site that allows people to ask anonymous questions to people (typically people they know) when the question is answered it is then posted on a news feed. The website is most popular with teens and being a teen myself I once had an account. After having it for a few months and seeing the questions people answered and how many people were using the anonymous part of the site to attack people I deactivated my account. The things people would write to each other were disturbing. Comments and questions like "why are you such a slut?" or "you're the ugliest thing i've ever seen" were all over my news feed and the thing is whoever the question or comment was directed to would actually answer them. They didn't know who asked them the question or made the comment but they'd still reply even if it was just "i don't know" for an answer. Still they gave in to these people who were hiding behind a computer screen bullying them. The worst is that its completely anonymous, they didn't even know who was bullying them!
Ask.fm has taken cyber-bullying to a whole new level. When you look at the premise of the website and think about its pretty much asking people to bully each other. This is something the founders clearly didn't think about when they launched the company. Not to say that it is their fault but it's defiantly something people in social need to think about. They should be asking themselves the question, how will this effect our audience? Also teenagers need to learn when its time to stop. By keeping their accounts on Ask.Fm they are opening the door for bullying. With one click their account's gone and nobody can ask them mean questions or make comments about them. Yet it seems in possible for them to pull away even though ultimately the things that are said to them on the site are lowering their self-esteem and hurting them. It's like an addiction, they need to know what people are saying about them and they need to know what people are saying about others.
We all know bullying is wrong and we hear all the time about solutions to end the bullying cycle. As an average person I know how hard it is to really act on ending the bullying cycle. It takes courage. It took awhile but eventually I found my courage. I know everyone has courage in them so I encourage you to dig deep and try to set an example for others by doing something as simple as deleting your Ask.fm account. These are just my opinions but I hope you take the time to think about what i've said.
Think Elegantly
The Lonely xoxo
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