Removing the face to face from communication
Internet Gives Teenage Bullies Weapons to Wound From Afar
The above article from the NY Times did not exactly surprise me, though the section where it describes instances of kids sending pictures or video clips of themselves of very personal moments and having them mass-distributed on the Internet was a little shocking. But why not? We’re worlds “ahead” of the 35 mm film cameras that I had in high school that even if you did take a picture that would be embarrassing, it would be a month before you’d have the money and inclination to get it developed. And who would take a video of themself and then convert to a VHS tape to give to someone. The sheer amount of time it would take nipped those problems in the bud.
But now many of us have instant access to digital images and video. We’re drowning in data. And a lot of it seems disconnected from our selves–in other words, we see pictures of people every day who are not people we know, so it becomes easy to objectify them. And as this article indicates, this technology makes it even easier for us to objectify people, treating them as if we don’t know them through faceless harassment or embarassment.