When I first came upon the chapter on flaming, I was confused. I had never heard the term before, but immediately upon hearing the definition (and a few examples), I knew this was something that I had dealt with before. The essay in the book goes on to describe flaming as "speak[ing] rabidly or incessantly on an uninteresting topic or with a patently ridiculous attitude" (The Hacker's Dictionary). The definition goes farther to include insults, over expression, rudeness, etc. I found the quote the idea that flaming is found to be in the objective attributes of a message. Thus, the meaning of what a flame truly is is left open to the interpreter. Anything from a quick insult to a powerful racial slur, from a love message to a political rant could be considered flaming.
These flames are found all over the internet on blogs, discussion boards, emails, chat rooms, and IMs. When I used to go into chat rooms and talk more frequently online, I would constantly see these flames posted everywhere. Over the internet, people can put on a mask that they would not usually wear. People have a confidence when not put face to face with a person; they say things they would usually not. Flames turned into the newer phenomenon of "cyberbullying." Parents now are encouraged to monitor their children's interaction over the internet not only for questionable websites, but also for bullying. There is a lot of information on the web about this subject, but I found this video to be interesting:
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What the internet also allows for is the presence of trolls: "One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument"
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At least from how I see it, they're just as annoying, but less harmful, in that online communities are quick to pick up on people attempting to disrupt a conversation. Or as some communities would say: "Don't feed the troll," or otherwise: don't give them fuel to continue on. Same goes with flamers.
As for flamers & cyberbullies, outside of the moderated forum threads, I think it would be difficult to curb such action in something as moderated on the internet. But as you pointed out, parents are being encouraged to keep an eye on what their children are doing online. If anything the internet is more self-policing than anything else.
It is really scary to think of the affects cyberspace and online bullying can have on children. Before reading this chapter, I was unaware that there was an actual term used to describe it. I think it's really interesting how Will used the idea that people can "put on a mask they would not usually wear". It can be very scary for a child to find out that the person that they are talking to is not in fact who he/she thought the person was. Online bullying is real, and a lot of harm can come from it. I remember reading about a young girl who hung herself (I think sometime last year) because she thought she was talking to a possible love interest, and the person (who ended up being her friend's mom) told her she should go kill herself because she was so unattractive. I think that instances like that are beyond tragic. But at this point, is there anything we can really do to stop them? It is so easy to create a "fake" online persona. When it comes to cyberspace, who do you trust?
ReplyDeleteIt does seem that the medium is very open to such negative behaviors as flaming, bullying, trolls, and spamming for that matter. The question is what is it about the medium that leads to such misbehavior?
ReplyDeleteThe place where I tend to see extraordinary amounts of flaming are in the comment sections of YouTube videos. It is absolutely disgusting the number of people who pick fights, uses rude phrases, or other terms that are just completely negative. I agree that people "put on a mask they would not usually wear" since most of these people are definitely and most likely hiding behind something else. It can be looked at in a psychological perspective as well to contain what it all could stem from, the negative comments and insults that occur all over the internet.
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