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Editorial December 16, 2016
Be careful what you tweet; it might just come true By: Pranjal Kadwe LO’T Editor in Chief Some of the most popular sites online have turned into the most haunting. Rumors spread without second thoughts over how they would impact the people involved. Even news stories have been twisted to the point of being completely false, yet people continue to spread and believe them. “Pizzagate” is the most recent and severe example of the detrimental effects of social media. The false scandal claimed that Hillary Clinton and her advisors were running a child-trafficking ring out of a Washington pizza parlor. According to the New York Times, Trump supporters released fake information on Reddit by writing that John Pedesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, had emails “proving” the scandal. These rumors claimed that in these emails, the words “cheese pizza,” stood for “child pornography.” The stories were spread throughout Twitter and Facebook, and eventually, on December 4th a man with a rifle and handgun believed the rumors and decided to act on them. After shooting the rifle and fortunately hurting no one, he surrendered when he found no evidence of childtrafficking in the pizza parlor.
makes adolescents more susceptible to malevolence like cyberbullying and sexting. A huge factor of cyberbullying is the ability for abusers to remain anonymous. People can post hateful comments without having to release their identity, and it’s obviously so much easier putting someone down if you can’t be blamed later. The effects of cyberbullying can be extremely hurtful and even tragic. So should young people have this much access to social media? I see kids even in elementary school using various social medias daily and uploading photos and statuses. Personally, I think that once adolescents are completely aware of all the negative effects of social media,
“Comet” is the name of the pizza restaurant where the “Pizzagate” shooting occurred. Courtesy of snopes.com
then they are ready to use these online resources. Bringing this issue into the school’s curriculum is a possible method of doing so. Yet this still poses an issue. There are many adults on Twitter or Facebook that spread bullying, racism, bigotry, misogyny, etc. A prominent example would be
Donald Trump tweets in a rude and insulting manner. Courtesy of twitter.com our president-elect Donald Trump. Teenagers are easily impressionable, and seeing a man of such power being able to write such hurtful comments is deleterious. While there are plenty of negative sides of social media, there are some positives. I have become more aware of social justice issues because of Twitter activists sharing their stories. We have the ability to easily communicate with people who are halfway around the world. When I talk to older immigrants, they talk about how difficult it was to converse with their relatives in foreign countries; they were often times limited to as little as a five minute phone call per week. But now, the constant communication I can have with my relatives has led to everything being impersonal. Birthday wishes used to be a phone call with a nice conversation; now it is a 3 word text message. Sometimes I find myself allowing a text message conversation to compensate for hanging out with a friend when I am short of time. We are all victims. In a positive or negative way, easy internet access and social media impacts our lives. It is important that we stand for the right things and don’t abuse the power we get from hiding behind a computer screen. The ramifications of taking advantage of the anonymity of the internet could even be deadly, which was proven by Pizzagate. It is our duty to be responsible, respectful, and mindful on social media platforms.
If news so awry can spread so aggressively, imagine smalls rumors throughout a school or grade. Teenagers are most affected by online rumors, and their self doubt can Various forms of social media are constantly on the minds tend to consume them in their developing years. In a study of teenagers. Courtesy of cyberbullying.org by Common Sense Media, it was found that seventy-five percent of teenagers use Editors-In-Chief: Pranjal Kadwe & Riya Patel Feature Editors: Dana Plagenz & Isabel Zimmerman social media, sixty-eight percent using Sports Editors: Katherine Douglas & Anna Finch Facebook as their primary source. News Editors: Grafton Carlson, Karthik Prakash, & Abhi Sodhani This online hub to express oneself Head Photographer: Micah Gentry & Brandon Zetina and openly agree or disagree with others, Focus Editors: Ava Gomez, Savannah Hampton & Siddhi Kapur is a blessing and a curse. Unfortunately, Business Manager: Connor Dessert through the spreading of ideas online Entertainment Editors: Truman & William VanVooren that you can not take back, social media Advisors: Heidi Norcross & Jay Bohnsack
Staff