Last week, several students took their lives.
One of these students was Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi, who decided he could no longer take the indignation of bullying.
Clementi’s death has stood apart due to the inherent questions raised by the viral paper trail leading to his death.
Dharun Ravi, Clementi’s roommate, decided to stream Clementi vis-à-vis Skype and Twitter while he was having a physical encounter with another male.
Ravi then posted on his Twitter account “I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.” Two days later, Ravi again attempted to film another encounter; Clementi found out, turned off Ravi’s computer, and alerted his RA and school officials.
Clementi didn’t wait for the university to take action, though, after the second stream attempt he posted this on his Facebook account before completing the action, “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.” Ravi and a friend have been charged with invasion of privacy and face up to five years to prison.
College students have stumbled upon their Matthew Shepard heartbreak. Can we combat a similar tragedy and try to curb future preventable calamities?
A State Press editorial regarding Clementi’s suicide determined our society to be in the “Age of Online Barbarianism.” How can one disagree? When it is deemed acceptable and even somewhat encouraging to post sexually comprising videos of one’s roommate without permission, the online community cannot claim to be a civilized society.
Posting videos and statuses has become so commonplace; many of us have forgotten how harmful digital media we initiate can be.
Laurie L. Levenson, a law professor at the Loyola School in L.A., discussed in the New York Times why this can be harmful to peers, “Students are encouraged by Facebook and Twitter to put their every thought and moment online, and as they sacrifice their own privacy to the altar of connectedness, they worry less about the privacy of others.”
Similar tragic cases have resulted from this lost regard for privacy, and while not all are deadly, serious issues involving the Internet and cyber-bullying must be addressed. According to the National Crime Prevention Center, more than 40 percent of teens with Internet access have reported being victims of bullying online. Furthermore, when teens were asked why they believed cyber bullying occurred, the highest-ranking, answer with 81 percent, was that “the bully thought it was funny.”
Let’s be clear; technology is not the perpetuator, it is the abettor. We should not throw all the blame on the Web, for it provided the service but did not complete the action itself. However, the fact must be acknowledged that, had this same event occurred pre-Internet, the situation would be vastly different.
Cyber-bullying and other harmful practices online need to be curbed before it becomes routine to us.
We must teach children and students that the Internet is a positive and powerful tool when used effectively, but it is not the place to lose progress we have made in society. Let’s train those growing up on the Web that when functioning online there are negative effects for acting inhumane. As Clementi’s story tells us, continuing current practices is having detrimental consequences.
Reach Zach at Zachary.Levin-Epstein@asu.edu
