The Hate Has to Stop: Get Off My Internets

I’m a little late to the game when it comes to Get Off My Internets (GOMI) and until this afternoon, remained entirely ignorant to its existence. Now, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I’m of the opinion that everyone has the right to voice said opinion (certain governments might disagree with me on this, but I digress.)

However, I draw the line when it comes to mass bashing for the sake of merely encouraging cruelty and hatred.

It’s an accomplishment to have made it through grammar school and junior high, particularly if you weren’t spared the experience of bullying. When I was that age, the end of the day meant that you left the dipwads that made your life a living hell behind with the promise of retreating to the haven that was home. (Maybe it wasn’t truly a haven, but at least the horror of junior high wasn’t something that found its way into your bedroom via the computer screen.) I can only imagine what it must be like to be a 12-year old now and completely unable to get away from kids that bully. 

Still, you sort of expect this from kids. Kids use whatever means possible to torment others when they deem it necessary because they haven’t figured sh*t out yet. Adults, on the other hand, are wholly responsible for their actions. Why? Because one should knows better once adulthood rolls around. Does this stop people? No; it simply equates to passive aggressive behavior as a way of inflicting pain.

This afternoon, after reading a Twitter conversation involving dooce and posts on GOMI, curiosity called. Was I surprised at the fact that the site and its forum are devoted primarily to bashing on bloggers and internet personalities? Probably not. What surprised me is the fact that GOMI feels like an internet version of Mean Girls. Grown adults tearing into each other. Specifically, grown WOMEN tearing into OTHER women. The rants do not consist of constructive criticism about what certain bloggers are doing and could do better, but rather personal attacks on these women as human beings. What kills me further is that the “authors” of the site are two women. Disclaimer: there is the occasional post about men, but the vast majority of the content is aimed at female bloggers.  

It’s bad enough that the internet and its many social platforms have become launch pads for cruelty between kids, often with sad results. We sit around and wonder why this passive aggressive form of sh*t slinging has become so prevalent, but we’ve no farther to look than our fellow adults. Opinions are opinions, but to encourage bash sessions (not to be confused with roasts) for the sake of bashing isn’t acceptable—it serves no greater good. 

Furthermore, to get on my feminist soapbox, I find it appalling that a couple of women have organized a place for a whole lot of other women to bash on a bunch of females who happen to hold a web presence. All for fun. For the sake of “commentary.” We (women) already live in a gender-biased world that creates inequality for both men and women. Why on earth would we want to contribute and encourage the growth of that gender bias? It serves no one. (The same sentiments go to a certain blogger who took it upon herself to label certain female journalists as sexpots based on less-formal Twitter avatars.)

Point: hate breeds hate. We have this wonderful tool that allows us to connect with different kinds of people all over the world. It might (oh my) allow us to understand our perspectives and beliefs a little better—even if we don’t agree on/don’t quite understand them.) Why on earth do we continue to use it to create more separation (excluding the conversation regarding the digital divide)?

Privacy, social media, and Google

Sometimes we keep our social profiles separate for very valid reasons and social media platforms—or technology companies—shouldn’t circumvent those efforts as a means of upping their own social capital value or out of some need to be more “socially-connected.”

What I post and the reasons behind what I post to Twitter are entirely different than what I post to Facebook. What I post to this blog is not always something that I would write about for the paper. Why? Because I have different audiences on every platform and frankly, I have a need for some level of privacy in what has become a very public world. What a novel idea.

Privacy on many of these sites continues to be a point of discussion. Whether it’s utilizing a secured url for login pages on Facebook or Twitter or having the ability to turn off the friendly little cookies that allow you to comment via your Facebook page about articles, videos, and whatever other schlock you might be looking at, privacy is important. People don’t like their information being rifled through—no matter what’s its being used for or not being used for.

Google is the latest to initiate a new “social feature” without being upfront. I run a search on Google this evening and guess what pops up?

When signed into Google, the platform automatically searches for public profiles on social networks that might match yours and it does this without asking your permission to do so first. Doesn’t this sound a little bit like the passive privacy adjustments Facebook’s been crucified for in the past? My Twitter profile is public at this point, but I make a point of privatizing other profiles that I have for the purpose of filtering audiences. I’ve made a point of disallowing Google to keep track of my search history. I’ve now made a point of barring Google from searching for profiles to “connect” to my Google account. I did these things to maintain that minuscule level of privacy that I’d like to keep without having to completely take everything down. 

This isn’t really so much about Google, though. This is about the fact that the concept of privacy has gone away. Not only is it not given most of the time, but increasingly it’s assumed that no one really wants any privacy. We know that we’ve given you our information. We’ve utilized the tools you’ve given us to keep confidential what we deem necessary. How dare you thumb your nose at us in order to get what you want. What happened to personal and professional ethics?