Friday, May 7, 2010

Teenage Insults, Scrawled on Web, Not on Walls

What are your thoughts regarding the NY Time article:
Teenage Insults, Scrawled on Web, Not on Walls

Do you think Formspring.me is "dangerous" for teenagers, why or why not?
Please give personal experience if you have some!


10 comments:

Steffy said...

I think that saying mean things online doesn't help any situation neither does saying it in person because people can get into fights. Using Formspring to say things anonymously that are mean doesn't make you tough. If you have a problem with someone you should say it to them in person not online just to make it seem like you are tougher or better than them.

Chris Snyder said...

I think in some ways it is dangerous and others its not. It's not dangerous because most of the time the comments aren't true or aren't taken seriously. It just mean people lashing out at innocents. People venting their emotions when they have no other way. Then there's the ways that make it dangerous. Constantly picking on somebody pushes them closer and closer to the edge. Then they snap. Some break down and cry, some get angry and punch the wall, and others look up people's IP address to find them and maybe even hurt them. That's why it's dangerous.

Mariane Machado said...

I personally think that Formspring can be very dangerous for teens, but so can any other social network out there. I had never heard about Formspring until I read this article, but I can definitely see that it's not a good thing to have. “There’s nothing positive on there, absolutely nothing, but the kids don’t seem to be able to stop reading, even if people are saying terrible things about them,” said Maggie Dock, a middle school counselor in Kinnelon, N.J. Teens are obsessed to know what people think about them, and sometimes this can lead to a terrible endings. According to the article Alexis Pilkington, a 17-year-old West Islip soccer player committed suicide after receiving many nasty messages. This reminds me of the PBS Growing Up Online video that we watched about kids and Internet. It made me remember the story about the kid named Ryan that committed suicide after being cyber-bullied. He too was getting made fun of online. I personally never got cyber bullied, of corse there are some comments out there on my Facebook that can hurt sometimes, but nothing serious, It was nothing about people making fun of me and all that. I think that people should be careful of what they say online, because words can literally kill.

Elizabeth Biemba said...

I think Form Spring is extremely dangerous because people are given the option to leave comments without the person knowing who they are. People get to say hurtful things, but what its what humans do, when they are hurt, in their minds the best way to feel better is to hurt someone else.
It is a vicious circle, but I still believe it can be changed by going to the people saying those hurtful things and getting to the root of why they said it and how to stop them by healing them inside so they see what they did was wrong.

ERROR 404 said...

I believe FORMSPRING is 100% dangerous to teenagers everywhere. Bullying is terrible enough as it is, where many adults do not use their power to stop it. And now we have Cyber-bullying, which in reality, nobody has any power to stop it. Any and all forms of bullying cause many teens, if not all teenagers, to feel negative emotions towards themselves, and others. This may be a conscious choice or even sub-conscious choice. Bullying leads to low self-esteem, depression, self-harming, attempting (and unfortunately sometimes committing) suicide.
All in all, FORMSPRING is a TERRIBLE website, which will lead to nothing but problems and harmfulness.

Joe Markarian said...

The article talks about a website called formspring.me, that allows people to post comments on other people's profiles. Yet most of the comments that are posted on this site tend to be sexual and inapropriate. What makes the website even worse is that many of the users are high school and college students that post offending comments about their classmates, such as "You looked hideous today...". This site is also addicting to many of its users; they cant stop reading what people wrote to them, even when they know that most of the comments are offending and hurtful. This is cyberbullying at its finest; students can post comments without having to identify themselves.

Ana Gerhske said...

After reading "Teenage Insults, Scrawled on Web, Not on Walls" I saw how much of a problem the internet can be for some. I was really shocked by some of the stories they mentioned. One of them was about a 17 year old soccer player teenager. Who committed suicide because he kept on receiving a bunch of rude comments on the internet and grew tried of everyone bullying him around. Another one was about a girl who began crying after reading some really rude comment on her appearance. Her mom said that every now and then her daughter would come crying to her about rude comments. Some school counselors have asked there students why they continue to use things such as formspring since people are really rude and they would say because they want to know what people are saying about them. All of these examples show me how dangerous formspring is.

Damon. M. T. Weiser said...

Formspring is a very dangerous site to be on. I think this because I got a Formspring about three months ago. I had not received a nasty comment in the first couple of days, until i started to hangout with my Jewish friends from temple. Someone, who had nothing better to do, made fun of me about that. They would say rude Anti-Semitic things. i would also get some looks in the hallway from some people which lead me to think about who was doing these things. I have learned to NOT NOT NOT post these negative comments, because they are NOBODIES business. I have seen a lot of people asking for advice on Formspring, and also some very rude comments. "you f*** to many girls, your pretty much like a walking std.." This was sent to a friends inbox on Formspring, and he posted it to his wall. Some of the questions are normal like... "Do you blow dry your hair? or just let it dry on its own, or towel dry?" Or "Ok my good friend just broke up with his gf and I really like him how do I tell him that I want to be with him." Formspring Can potentially dangerous, and should be used (if used at all) with caution.

Joe Markarian said...

Comment part 2:
I think that this site should be imediatly banned from the internet as soon as possible. This will severely hurt kids' self confidence and, at its extreme, will depress people and give them thoughts of suicide.

CharltonChars said...

I can definitely say that it's not a good thing. Some break down and cry, some get angry and punch the wall, and others look up people's IP address to find them and maybe even hurt them. It can be changed by going to the people saying those hurtful things and getting to the root of why they said it and how to stop them by healing them inside so they see what they did was wrong.
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