Outrage, social media and knee-jerk responses

I have a new post up at the Guardian that you can go and fight with.

Additionally:

I quite like this piece by Laura Hudson at Wired on when the bullied becomes the bullies in the age of social media.

I think it’s a difficult discussion and, though I like the article, I’m not sure how far I agree. Probably about *sucks thumb* 90%.

As should be obvious from my Guardian piece, I am worried about the kinds of reactions we have; the sort of horrible name-calling, derision, threats, and pile-ons that can occur – even for a good cause.

After all, we don’t have licence to, for example, threaten homophobes with death. (I wouldn’t want to associate with anyone that did that, which would undermine the cause itself.)

To think we’re immune in our responses because we’re on the moral side is a dangerous precedent, I think. Just because we’re morally right in our position doesn’t make automatically morally right in whatever way we respond.

Is Katy Perry powered by Twitter?

She must be, if this Tweet were true.

Screen shot 2013-07-07 at 12.30.50 AM

You can see at time of capture, it had reached 100,385.

I’ve been even more sensitive to quick, knee-jerk reactions to stories and claims – especially those that occur via social media – thanks to reading an incredible book, No Time to Think. I’ll be saying a bit more about it when I’ve finished it. For now, let’s examine the Twitter-powered custard pumping android that, apparently, (and falsely) is Katy Perry. [Read more…]