What's worse? The costume or the feedback.
When there are two extremes on social media, does one cancel the other out? If someone posts something appalling and others react negatively, harassing the user, which act is worse?
Alicia Ann Lunch, a 22-year-old from Michigan, dressed up as a Boston Marathon bombing victim for Halloween and took a picture of herself at work with her outfit then shared the picture on social media sites, including Twitter and Instagram. The feedback was nothing but degrading. Yes, the first thing you would think is what is going through this girls mind thinking that dressing up as a victim of a tragedy would be a great costume idea. It makes me wonder if she thought there were too many "Miley Cyrus'" on Halloween and she ran out of ideas.
Feedback from other social media participants all over the world have tracked Alicia down due to a posting of her drivers license, exposing personal and contact information, and harassed her and her parents. Cyber bullying is a major problem in today's culture due to the lack of responsible networking use among the younger aged population. This is a prime example of this social "epidemic." The rage against Alicia spun out of control promoting her to delete all of her social media accounts, destroying her online presence for potential careers, and was fired from her job, all from a bad choice being circulated around the Internet. She received death threats, as well as her parents. Alicia told Buzz Feed, “I’ve had voice mails where they want to slit my throat and they want to
hang me and tear off my face,” she said. “I’m just like, I don’t even
know how to respond to this right now.” Defending herself, she states that other people on Twitter had dressed up as Boston Marathon victims and she received such backlash because she was a women. “Honestly, it’s the Day of the Dead,” she says. “I wasn’t a
dead person, I wasn’t being disrespectful. I was a survivor of a
marathon. And it’s not like I was walking around with a fake leg or my
arm torn off or something like that.”
The interesting point about this story is that other social media users feel the need to patrol the ethical grounds of postings and why do people feel as if they are the ultimate decider on a moral code? That is because social media allows you the power to channel your life, popularity, and personality, leaving you the feeling of a control on social media. The question is who is the worse person? Those threatening to cut her throat, hang her, and rape her, or the person who made a bad costume decision that had gone viral around the Internet? Yes, the costume was disrespectful to the situation, but right now, the girl's life at risk because of social media postings. This girl is in high risk of suicide due to cyber bullying.
Alicia is a 22-year-old girl who's life is just beginning and now her life will never be the same and with the power of social media, those who threatened her life will never give up because death threats are buttons on a computer and by one click they are sent.There is no paper copy.
Chloe Smith
It is unbelievable what some people think is funny. Trying to go back and say she was a marathon "survivor" rather than victim is ridiculous. I don't condone death threats over this issue, but I don't see how she shouldn't suffer any other appropriate repercussions for this terrible costume choice.
ReplyDeletePeople are just plan dumb sometimes. This is a terrible thing to make fun of or even dress up as. The reaction is terrible but she is stupid for doing this.
ReplyDelete