essay 4 research

did a google search containing "should trolling be illegal?

First page received: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/19/justice-secretary-chris-grayling-pledges-stiffer-sentences-for-internet-trolls

google searched "how does trolling effect teens?"

first page: http://www.bullguard.com/blog/2013/01/whats-internet-trolling-and-how-can-it-affect-you.html

also: http://www.channel4.com/news/trolling-online-abuse-one-in-three-young-people-affected

essay 3

Jackson Barackman

RWS 200

April 15, 2015

Christoffer Werry

Public Incivility’s Uprising

Public incivility is rising in our society and has become a problem to just about everyone that has access to the internet. Public incivility is the disrespect towards others to cause harm or damage an argument’s rhetorical strategies. Some common forms of these incivilities are using words improperly by creating false meanings, improper representation can cause significant damage to credibility, and using social media and forms of social media to inflict pain or cause arguments between others. Many articles, books, and essays have been written on these topics discussing the growing issue and the possible solutions. Is this incivility causing great disruption in our society, according to “A recent survey by Rasmussen Reports found that an overwhelming majority of Americans (75 percent) think so, and anecdotal evidence of the coarsening of our public debate abounds.”(Clayton 1) In this essay, I will be comparing the evidence of incivilities and possible solutions to the growing issue, while giving the similarities and differences between each author’s views.

            The common use of slang words or distorting the actual meanings of words has become more significant in our society. It is the cause for many disruptions and arguments in speech debate and social media. In “How the Internet Created an Age of Rage”, written by, journalist, Tim Adams, Adams discusses the increasing amount of comments on social media and the way things are being moderated. An example from experience comes from, journalist and moderator for The Register, Sarah Bee when she became victim to name calling on social media, stating "There was a lot of misogyny and casual sexism, some pretty off-colour stuff. I would get a few horrible emails calling me a c[***] or whatever…"(Adams 4) This explicit language was used to get a response from Bee in a negative manner. This form of incivility was to expose Bee’s anger and possibly backfire on her. James Fallows, a writer for The Atlantic, believes that there are ways to avoid this such problem, in his article “Is There Anything to do About Civility?” Fallows discusses some solutions to the rising issue. A possible solution to the problem is stated by James Fallows, “If you aren't sure what a particular word (such as treason, murder, fascism, Nazi, or socialism) means, do not use it.” (Fallows 4) The same goes for words that are used as slang. If the audience you are speaking to may not know what your slang term means then you are more likely to cause a great disturbance or harass another individual involuntarily. The use explicit words, such as the ones used against Bee, shows the incivility of today’s society. Fallows suggests that we have more respect for each other and mind what we say.

            Many authors today use a fake name or pseudonym to hide their identities and stay away from much of the incivilities. However, social media has allowed for the use of pseudonyms, causing many aggressive debates and sometimes creating unnecessary disturbance. An article posted on Zephoria.org, “’Real Names’ Policies are an Abuse of Power”, by Danah Boyd, discusses the use of pseudonyms to create disturbance and “troll” others, but possibly disguising some people for their own safety. While many people who are on Facebook have a pseudonym name, Google’s new rule of enforcement is the policy to use your real name on their social media to moderate their website. Many people disagree with this because many are “abuse survivors, activists, LGBT people, women, and young people.” (Boyd 1) Tim Adams discusses how the use of trolling has found its way into serious debates, saying

Barbarians, or "trolls" as they became known, had entered the community, ignoring the rules, shouting loudly, encouraging violence, spoiling it for everybody. Thereafter, anyone who has established a website or forum with high, or medium-high ideals, has had to decide how to deal with such anonymous destructive posters, those who got in the way of constructive debate. (Adams 3)

Adams acknowledges the issue and describes “trolling” as a “…kind of covert bullying…” (Adams 3). A commenter on James Fallows article says “there's good reason for offensive imagery and language to have broad legal protection, but public shaming is a valuable and entirely appropriate tool…”(Fallows 6). Some disagree with the use of trolling however it can be justified as a rhetorical strategy. The effects of “trolling” are a pathos approach to cause an uproar of anger.

            A rising issue of incivility today in the gamer gate conflict. Gamer gate is the depiction of the human body in repulsive or explicit manner. Natasha Lomas discusses gamer gate in her article, “#Gamergate Shows Tech Needs Far Better Algorithms”, approaching a younger audience by using the “pound” symbol in her article title, as a Twitter reference known as “hashtag”. Lomas believes that women are depicted in new and developing games in a rude and explicit manner. These forms of social media are seen as a fight against feminism. The incivility seen here is the creation of argument through social and mainstream media. It is apparent that game creators use offensive depictions of women in their game to grab the male society’s attention and create profits. Extreme activists of gamer gate have gone to extraordinary lengths as stated by Lomas,

Gamergate activists use online channels to funnel graphic death and rape threats as a weapon to silence feminist critics. But they also repurpose more banal channels — by, for instance, carrying out orchestrated email campaigns that fire carefully worded missives at advertisers to apply commercial pressure against targets (such as hated media outlets). (Lomas 4)

Using extremist tactics, gamer gate activists are forcing their beliefs upon everyone on social and mainstream media.

            In conclusion, the articles and journals used were all very strong and persuasive documentation of the ongoing incivilities. A weakness I encountered however was Lomas sharing the gamer gate extremist actions. Sending graphic media would be frowned upon in a movement with such support from feminists. Following the Real Name policy set out by google could possible expose trolls and online threats to social media. Finally, I agree with the solutions brought up by James Fallows and believe that with enough support he could make a movement to create a more civil social society for this generation.

 

 

 

 

 

Work Cited

Adams, Tim. "How the Internet Created an Age of Rag." The Guardian. The Guardian, 23 July   2011. Web. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftechnology%2F2011%2Fju                        l%2F24%2Finternet-anonymity-trolling-tim-adams>.

Clayton, Cornell. "Understanding the “Civility Crisis”." Understanding the “Civility Crisis”.         Washington State Magazine, n.d. Web. <http://wsm.wsu.edu/s/index.php?id=827>.

Boyd, Danah. "“Real Names” Policies Are an Abuse of Power." Danah Boyd Apophenia RSS.      Zephoria, 2011. Web. <http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2011/08/04/real-   names.html>.

Fallows, James. "Is There Anything to Do About 'Civility'?" The Alantic. The Atlantic Monthly    Group, 2015. Web.

Lomas, Natasha. "#Gamergate Shows Tech Needs Far Better Algorithms." TechCrunch. N.p.,      2015. Web. <http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/18/gamergate-tactics/>.