Ask.fm and Teen Suicides, or Which Side Are You On?
The mission of social networks is to supplement real life, preserving and transferring communication and socialisation opportunities to the virtual environment. In its early days, the virtual environment offered the possibility of maintaining a virtual "self" image, publicly displaying only those qualities that the owner of that image desires. But the virtual environment converged with the real one very quickly - not supplementing it, but merely introducing a new dimension of communication.
The Mission of Social Networks
The mission of social networks is to supplement real life, preserving and transferring communication and socialisation opportunities to the virtual environment. In its early days, the virtual environment offered the possibility of maintaining a virtual "self" image, publicly displaying only those qualities that the owner of that image desires. But the virtual environment converged with the real one very quickly - not supplementing it, but merely introducing a new dimension of communication.
The virtual environment is based on real human weaknesses - the need for attention. However, if in the real environment socialisation and the manner of mutual communication is regulated to some degree (by the Ten Commandments, by the Criminal Law, by fellow citizens' condemnation), then in the virtual environment no immediate offence is committed (in the legal sense), thereby creating the illusion of impunity and depersonalisation. The basis for this is most likely the absence of experiencing the consequences of one's actions. That is, by committing some action or merely a biting remark, one cannot receive feedback equivalent to real life, cannot see the victim's reaction and distress.
Offences in the virtual environment may vary. Starting from a cyber-attack on some system, unauthorised use of a copyrighted work, to making an offensive but essentially naive remark.
Peculiarities of Adolescent Socialisation
Unlike adults, for whom the rules of life's game are mostly clear, children and adolescents must discover them. Moreover, adults, guided by rational considerations and laziness, establish their comfort zone at quite an early age (by the age of 30), from which they are very reluctant to depart. Around this time a career has mostly already been built, relationships with friends and a life partner have stabilised, children may have been born, requiring their time and attention. Any step outside the familiar comfort zone requires effort and energy, and is therefore taken comparatively rarely, or not taken at all.
Children and adolescents must discover all of this on their own, and so their interest and motivation for doing so is different. They must test the boundaries of relationships (and sometimes the law). They must find a means of self-realisation, build relationships and find themselves in the crowd. The "MeMeMe" generation, or the generation born in the digital age, is considerably more narcissistic, yet endowed with nearly innate abilities to integrate into the virtual world - if for no other reason than that it is a world not controlled by parents.
Adolescents are neither more tolerant nor crueller than adults. It is an age when all possible limits are tested, including those of violence. If in (adult-)controlled conditions, for example at school when stepping outside the bounds, this limit is pointed out, then in the virtual environment control is considerably weaker, or non-existent at all. Moreover, the expression of uncontrolled aggression is a temptation not only to adults, but to any individual who, unable to rationalise hatred within themselves, has merely suppressed it.
Hatred and anger are fundamental human emotions. They may be based on instincts (including sexual ones) as well as self-determination. Hatred and anger are hard to forget and forgive. There is a tendency to project these emotions onto other figures that often have nothing to do with these emotions. In uncontrolled conditions, such as the virtual environment, they may be vented on a completely unrelated person.
One must also take into account the values of certain social groups and their drive to gain (prove) their place in the pack. To reinforce pack identity, objects of worship are established, as well as persons or groups of persons to be despised. The contempt and humiliation of the weaker, with the aim of asserting one's own selfhood and proving (mainly to oneself) one's distinctiveness.
What Is "Wrong" with Ask.fm?
Ask.fm was created in Latvia, which is a source of indescribable pride (We can!). Moreover, similar social formations have existed in several forms and, as it turned out, only Ask.fm managed to push itself to the zenith of world social network fame. However, one must bear in mind what was also noted by the British publication The Daily Mail - what kind of personalities and with what upbringing legacy stand behind this portal. For instance, brothers Ilya and Mark Terebin make no secret of their sympathies for the Stalin regime.
Although after the Irish teen suicides (which were before Hannah Smith's suicide), the website had pledged to pay greater attention to moderation, the newspaper notes that this was never actually done. Meanwhile on the website TheStudentRoom.co.uk, a forum participant notes that the Ask.fm guys are so obsessed with making money that they have forgotten about something as self-evident as moderation.
K. Skutelis, a technology blogger well known in Latvia, has also taken Ask.fm's side, rhetorically asking:
Are firearms to blame for the fact that one can kill with them? Are motorcycles to blame for the fact that one can crash on them? Is electricity to blame for the fact that one can lose one's spark of life?
I do not think that children's and adolescents' mutual relationships should be allowed to be built on the principles of savages. On the principle that the strongest will survive. A mature person (parent) is rational enough to determine for their (own) child what is good and what is evil. At school this is done by staff, but in the virtual environment no one does it. A sensible parent will not let a child play with a loaded weapon, will not let them ride a motorcycle or fiddle around with electrical wires.
Parents must be able to respond appropriately and explain both the limits of anonymity on the internet and the critical attitude towards information found accidentally (or intentionally). But Ask.fm is a different story. Ask.fm has in effect created a place where the same children who meet at school day after day can freely express offensive remarks and insults, with the sole difference that it goes unnoticed.
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