In her TedTalk, Monica Lewinsky discusses the need for a cultural revolution when it comes to the nature of internet users to publicly shame individuals for transgressions that were meant to stay private. She challenges the public to value compassion and empathy instead of valuing humiliation. Lewinsky also discusses humiliation as a commodity and shame as an industry that is fuelled by clicks and makes money on the back of someone else’s suffering. These are huge topics that Monica has faced in her life and has been able to find some clarity in as a 40-something woman. When we put these big topics in the context of being in a child’s online reality… the consequences are so much more likely to be catastrophic.
Lewinsky does touch on the subject of children facing these challenges online and not being developmentally equipped enough to handle the situation. I truly hope that if I in the future have a student that is dealing with online public humiliation, that they are willing to share with me so that I can offer them some form of compassion. Lewinsky mentioned that leaving positive messaging when cyber-vigilantism is running its course can be a way to mitigate the negativity and break the mob-mentality that fans the flames of shame fires.
What are we doing? Have we determined that it’s now okay to be evil to people we don’t know as long as it happens on the internet?
There is a major lack of all the things we learned in kindergarten when it comes to the behaviour of society online. While I can understand that most of the internet’s users that engage in cyberbullying on a large scale did not grow up learning about digital citizenship in school, I can assume that most of them went to kindergarten. I honestly think it may be over for the adults of today to change the way they react online, but it is not too late for our youth. With algorithms feeding online users what they want and no physical gathering place to relay information, cyber-vigilantes are unlikely to receive any messaging pertaining to why what they are doing is wrong. It is our responsibility as teachers to teach our students about how to be kind online.
Raisa,
Monica Lewinsky’s TEDTalk was a powerful one. The fact that she came through all of the scrutiny, public shaming and humiliation and is here to tell her story to inspire others is nothing short of amazing. It was heartbreaking to hear her share stories of others who did not make it through the humility to share their stories. Those pieces broke my heart.
The anonymity of the internet leads people to behave unlike they would in real-life. I mean, some people probably are just as mean and nasty in real-life, but I like to believe that most everyone is a good person and will show that to you first! I find that I cannot engage in most everything on the internet. Some things hurt my head and others hurt my heart, but I am never willing to be the person to potentially hurt another over something that was posted online. Leading with compassion and kindness is where it’s at.
I always appreciate your thoughtfulness in your responses both written and during class!
That is such a kind compliment, thank you Chantelle!