carolinedobbs-blog

[carolinedobbs-blog]

Fighting Back Against Trolls

Okay, so as a frequent redditor (www.reddit.com, for those of you not familiar), I want to discuss fighting back against trolls. Trolls are obnoxious, unfunny and mostly looking to get a rise out of people. They go out of their way to be overly stupid or offensive (and I’m not talking about the infamous Ken M posts - those are pretty funny). Trolls are more often than not malicious in their actions. It breeds hate on the internet, and creates unnecessary tension on online forums that people be may be using to escape from the mundane pace of their every day lives.  Honestly, I think we should take a leaf out of Ghandi’s book on this one: “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” and just ignore the trolls. Responding to them only gives them what they want - and I think if people just continuously ignored them, then the amount of internet trolling that we see would die down. Easier said than done though, it seems like. 

[carolinedobbs-blog]

Overall, 20% of social media users say they’ve modified their stance on a social or political issue because of material they saw on social media, and 17% say social media has helped to change their views about a specific political candidate. Among social media users, Democrats – and liberal Democrats in particular – are a bit more likely than Republicans to say they have ever modified their views on a social or political issue, or on a particular political candidate, because of something they saw on social media. (Democrats and Republicans include independents and nonpartisans who “lean” toward these parties.)

Monica Anderson, Pew Research

[carolinedobbs-blog]

Let’s face it, it can be tough being a women - between personal and social pressures, I don’t know how women keep up. So added the stress of sexual harassment doesn’t help. The #NoWomanEver campaign seeks to stamp out street harassment via increased social media visibility and discussion.

[carolinedobbs-blog]

The women’s march, after Inauguration Day, was an amazing turnout. It was so great to see so many people out there and getting involved with something that they passionately believe in. Social media was largely used to share this event, and get the word out to women all over the world. Without social media, I do not think the women’s march would’ve been such a success.

[carolinedobbs-blog]

This Vox article, by Jenee Desmond-Harris outlines a Pew Research Study, discussing how white social media users are much less inclined to discuss race via social media than other people of color, and argues the importance of white users to get involved in the discussion about race as much as everyone else.