Have you ever witnessed or experienced negative fallout for something you or someone else said online?
In response to the question, have I ever witnessed or experienced negative fallout for something I said or someone else said on line, my example involves two people that I brought together for a dinner party.
I have an acquaintance that is a staunch right wing politician. He has some very radical opinions on things at times. Another acquaintance is quite the opposite and needless to say it didn’t take long for the bantering back and forth. For anonominity I will refer to her as Ms. Left and him as Mr. Right (no pun intended). Their spirited discussions were very intense and somehow they ended up on the topic of the Nazi’s. This discussion did not did end at the dinner table as Ms. Left the following day, decided to forward some information to “educate” her new friend Mr. Right. She had been talking about the Holocaust in school and was discussing and sharing information with her Instructor and classmates online, including in email. Unfortunately when she forwarded the email from her class studies she included the entire classroom email list including the Instructor’s. Well Mr. Right could not help himself and thought he had the opportunity to “educate the students” on his views. Ms. Left was mortified that her classmates would even think she was associating with someone like Mr. Right.
It gets better…Mr. Right was arguing that the Holocaust did not happen and that what the Nazi’s did was good (Crazy, yes I know, even crazier that I know someone like this but hey we can’t pick our family). Mr. Right ridiculed the Instructor for not teaching the students the right history (see there was a reason why I called him Mr. Right!). Meanwhile a few days prior, this same Instructor had his car egged in the parking lot and had filed a report with the police. While talking with the police they asked the Instructor if he had any enemies that might do such a thing. The Instructor could not think of someone then suddenly looking at Mr. Right’s response he thought, “It’s Mr. Right! He must have egged my car”. The Instructor immediately called police to report the incident and shared the email. The police followed with a polite call to Mr. Right, to ask him in future to use restraint in sharing his opinions when using email.
To this day Mr. Right still thinks he is right. He believed that if someone sends an email out and the addresses are free for the viewing, he has the right to send them a message. Mr. Right’s opinion was that Ms. Left should have blind cc’d the other students and instructor or removed the emails all together. Mr. Right continued for weeks to send email’s with content from his favorite blogs.
I thought back and wished I never had that dinner party and felt somewhat responsible for what had happened. In follow up unfortunately I can no longer have the two in the same room together.
Have you ever witnessed or experienced the public shaming a person or organizations for something that they said online?
I am an indigenous person working for my community and I am regularly saddened to read the comments attached to news stories associated with Indigenous people. Often I read about how Indigenous people are getting a free ride and money from the government. Another one that kills me is when there are comments that say the war was won a long time ago. What war I ponder! It’s heartbreaking to read the terrible prejudices.
I’ve learned that with the web and social media it has become a place that folks can hide behind and reveal their inner most ideas and thoughts. It’s a very powerful tool that unfortunately can be used for good as well as bad.
What strategies will you employ to ensure that you don’t become a participant or victim of the Internet Rage Machine?
My career started at the beginning of the internet age and so writing emails was fairly new in the business sector. I was fortunate to have a terrific mentor whom instilled in me to always be careful what I put in writing. This is something I have practiced in life as well as work. When it comes to social media I stop to think about how something might affect my reputation. I also ensure that I share positive stories on the web and so that if someone were to google me they will find me to be a person of good judgement and character. While I say this it is important to note that creating fake news also becomes obvious. It’s not about creating a fake profile but about living life as a good person. In my culture we are thought to live by the 7 laws of life – health, happiness, generations, generosity, humbleness, forgiveness and understanding. I have learned by holding myself to this standard in anything that I do has provided excellent guidance whether in a social setting or on the web.