The dark side of social media

Earlier dictators and politicians made to the headlines. Times are changing and anyone can make history, not just some big politicians or celebrities. Even an ordinary person like a fruit vendor or a lousy filmmaker can hit the headlines, drawing the attention of the world, thanks to the digital world. People now have power to speak beyond their geographical confines.

Erstwhile unknown singers become famous overnight with a well-placed YouTube video and haters can pinch the right nerve endings at the most vulnerable time so American missions anywhere can go up in flames.

No wonder, countries are struggling hard to clamp down on the internet freedom on its citizens. One can be just a mute spectator if not stunned by the swiftness with which social media can change world events. Interestingly, no longer countries and terrorist organisations have “a monopoly of power to press those dangerous buttons. Those buttons are available now for as little as $199 for the latest iPhone”.

Andrew Lam, an editor with New America Media, has written an excellent article on this issue and here’s the original piece:

In 2010, Time magazine's prestigious Person of the Year title went to Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. He was the choice of the magazine's editors, though its readers picked Julian Assange, the founder of the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.

"Facebook is now the third-largest country on earth and surely has more information about its citizens than any government does," the magazine noted. Assange, for his part, undermined nation states' public narratives by providing a platform where individuals can anonymously show their government's dark underbellies.

In 2011, a fruit vendor made the cut. Mohammed Bouazizi, a Tunisian who set himself ablaze protesting at corruption, became literally the torch that lit the Arab spring revolution. Bouazizi's death was seen by many who had mobile phones and the videos kick-started the uprising.

This year, no doubt Time can add "Nakoula Basseley Nakoula", aka "Sam Bacile", as a contender. An unknown amateur filmmaker until this week, he fanned anti-America outrage in the Middle East with incendiary video clips of a US-made film that mocked and insulted the Prophet Mohammed.

Nakoula/Bacile is in hiding and may in fact be fictitious. Evidence now points to him as an Egyptian Coptic Christian who holds grudges against Islam.

The jury is out on who instigated the violence against US personnel in Libya, resulting in the death of the American ambassador and three others. The attack was carefully planned, it was reported, and not the mere work of angry protesters - but few doubt that the film had a direct effect in stoking anger in the Middle East.

In the global age, it seems that not only dictators or overzealous elected heads of state with the power of pre-emptive strikes can direct history to the edge of an abyss, but also fruit vendors and lousy filmmakers.

Even al-Qaeda, for all its planning and propaganda, hasn't achieved what the film and its 14-minute YouTube trailer has; quickly undermining much of the US' soft diplomacy in the region.

In a blog for The Boston Globe, a friend of slain ambassador Chris Stevens asked: "How could Chris Stevens die because of a YouTube clip?" Alas, the answer is: why not in our information age?

It is worth noting that within a day after the deaths in Libya, Apple launched its iPhone5. Through the digital world, people attain power to speak beyond their geographical confines. Erstwhile, unknown singers can become famous overnight with a well-placed YouTube video. And haters can pinch the right nerve endings at the most vulnerable time so American missions anywhere can go up in flames.

Nation states are stunned by the swiftness with which social media can change world events. Excited copycats are waiting in the wings. Why not make a false video showing Japanese killing Chinese on Diaoyu Islands? Why not show blurry videos of Pakistani soldiers raping Hindu women in Kashmir? The list is endless.

This moronic filmmaker has made his point. No longer do heads of state and terrorist organisations have a monopoly of power to press those dangerous buttons. Those buttons are available now for as little as US$199 for the latest iPhone.

(Source: South China Morning Post)

When father and daughter wash dirty linen in public...

Here was a man who was telling about how his daughter posted on her Facebook wall, cursing him for “false allegations”. He says on the video: “My daughter thought it would be funny/rebellious/cool to post on her Facebook wall just how upset she was and how unfair her life here is; how we work her too hard with chores, never pay her for chores, and just in general make her life difficult.

She chose to share this with the entire world on Facebook and block her parent's from seeing it. Well, umm... she failed. As of the end of this video, she won't have to worry anymore about posting inappropriate things on Facebook...

Maybe a few kids can take something away from this... If you're so disrespectful to your parents and yourself as to post this kind of thing on Facebook, you're deserving of some tough love. Today, my daughter is getting a dose of tough love.”

Plus, the video comes with a warning: “Since this video seems to have gone crazy, I figure I'll post this notice. I'm going to read a letter my 15 year old daughter wrote. There ARE some curse words in it. None of them are incredibly bad, but they are definitely things a little kid shouldn't hear... not to mention things MY KID shouldn't say!”

 AT one point, everybody should appreciate the man for making a point. His point is very simple: do not let your children walk all over you. He felt it was time to his daughter that she can’t just say or do whatever she wants.

But wonder, there was a cigarette in his fingers throughout the video. He used his gun at the end to shoot at his daughter’s laptop. But one might also argue that the dad loses his credibility by sitting on a video with a cigarette in his hand. His daughter's rant is no different than most teen girls of that age. The man as a father should have handled it in a different way. When we teach our children how to behave, should we not also teach them not to air their dirty laundry in public? And are there no better ways to deal with a teenager’s rant than shooting her computer and making the scene much more worse?

But I don’t understand why are people bashing a man, who has put a disrespectful kid in her place and did it in a way that she would understand and would make a point to her? If we disagree with him, then we have to go ahead and continue to let our children do whatever they want and have no repercussions for their actions.

The girl was warned months before this was found. If the father had not fixed her computer what else could she have posted and how far could she have gone? Children should respect and be respected, it should work both ways. But if children go astray, they should be mended, their ways should be mended.

And I don’t understand why parents should be afraid of their children. If all parents were strict in parenting and had put fear in their children and mended their ways when they did mistakes, this world would have been in a better shape. Oh, yes. The scene is not that bad in India, as we still have respect for our parents and elders and our parents control our lives sometimes even after our marriage! Reason: Children can’t sue or file a complaint against their parents like western countries.

But here, I see and have heard how teenagers disrespect their parents and elders. And one should laud the idea of this man, for he didn't beat her or hurt her, which would have landed him behind bars, but he just hurt her where it hurts all teenagers most. And I see a parent commenting on the video: “He bought the computer, he can shoot the computer! And I'll gladly donate the money for the next round if need be! Great fathering!”

But don’t these children ever realize that whatever electronic gadgets they are getting are not needs, but are merely wants which parents buy them all the time to make them happy? No children earn to buy those fancy gadgets, from mobile phones to laptops to ipods to ipads, and not to mention about the monthly bills they get. They often take their parents for granted. They don’t even see how their parents work hard to get food, shelter and clothing, besides paying for their education.

Unfortunately, this teenager made it sound like she did the household laundry, made every bed in the place and waited on her parents hand and foot… Maybe she would have never survived in our world, in India, and in our time when we were being raised by our parents. When I was a teen, I got to see the TV only when I went to the high school and there were no other channels except Doordarshan, and most important, we had no remote control and we had to switch on and off by getting up from the sofa whenever our parents asked us to do so. And yes, the phone was there, locked almost all the time and we had to request our parents to make or receive the calls. We were taught to do all our chores, helped with meals and dishes. I then had no ipods, no computers, no cell phones, no days spent at the mall spending money I did not earn on anything and everything I wanted. And now, I have grown up and have made my parents proud by being wonderful adult. Had my parents not raised me in a proper way, I would have not been a person who I am today! 

I think, those who are bashing this father, have never been a parent yet, but others, who have been the girl’s age and are now parents, support the man wholeheartedly.

Canadian man uses iPad to enter the US

When I saw a joke on Facebook, I laughed at it, but now, somehow I’m surprised at the way the technology is moving and the people are utilizing it. A Canadian who realized he forgot his passport as he approached the US border found a new way to gain entry, through his iPad. Yes, not a joke. iPad helped him to cross the border.

I read a report which said that a Canadian, Martin Reisch, said that a slightly annoyed US border officer let him cross into the United States from Quebec after he presented a scanned copy of his passport on his Apple iPad. Reisch was just a half an hour from the border when he decided to try to gain entry rather than turn back and make a two-hour trek back home to Montreal to fetch his passport.

He told the officer that he was heading to the US to drop off Christmas gifts for his friend's kids. The officer seemed mildly annoyed when he handed him the iPad. "I thought I'd at least give it a try," Reisch said. "He took the iPad into the little border hut. He was in there a good five, six minutes. It seemed like an eternity. When he came back he took a good long pause before wishing me a Merry Christmas."

Reisch said the officer made an exception.

Canadians began needing more than a driver's licence for identification for US land border crossings in 2009. US Customs and Border Protection says it only accepts a passport, an enhanced driver's licence or a Nexus pass from Canadian citizens entering at land crossings. The list doesn't mention facsimiles, like scans and photocopies.

A spokesman for the department did not immediately respond to questions on whether scanned passports are also commonly accepted at US points of entry.

Reisch, 33, said he took a scanned photo of his passport years ago in case it was over lost or stolen while traveling. He said he also successfully used the passport on his iPad to get through Canadian Customs on the way home later that day.

He said he doubts he'd get away with it again and will bring his passport next time. But he hopes border officials will eventually make digital identification an official form of travel document. He noted that many airlines now accept digital boarding passes stored on smartphones.

"I see the future as 100 per cent being able to cross with your identity on a digital device -- it's just a matter of time," he said.

Befriending students on FB? Stop, think before you click yes...

One of my friends’ brother one day told me that he’s using the Facebook since he’s 13-year-old. That’s not surprising, given the importance of social networking. But what fascinates me is the fact that how he and his friends comment about their exams, classes, teachers and other stuff. He comments regularly, starting from where he is, what did he do at the school, after school hours, what his brother is doing, what did he say to him, what did he ate, what did he buy, blah blah blah. Literally, he gives all the accounts of hid day-to-day life on Facebook. 

I have seen a few of my friends who are working as teachers and lecturers commenting on their students’ wall. The other day, I saw a student commenting on my friend’s Facebook wall on the occasion of farewell and apologized for missing the party. His next question was when he could go to her house to say farewell, as she was leaving the country, with a smiley. Maybe I would have not befriended any of my students on social networking sites when they were still studying. And sometimes I wonder how far will it help or harm us by adding students in our friends’ list. 

These are the days when countless, including me, feel threatened and unsafe in the cyberspace where we cannot identify our so-called enemies. Even though some comments look very innocent exchanges and look perfectly normal in the world of social networking, they can sometimes cross the limits. And I believe there’s some reason when some school principals get angry over the teacher-student relationships, once they step out of the classroom. This is an era where many offices are removing the walls between managements and employees, by removing the 'Sirs' and 'Ma'ms' from official lingo, thanks to the globalization concept. When parents behave like buddies with their wards, principals’ and teachers’ fears may seem little odd. But their fears are not exaggerated. 

Last year, a student of Delhi's Mira Model School put a nasty comment on his teacher's wall after she admonished him. It is in February 2011, a 13-year-old student of MP Shah School at Vile Parle, Mumbai, was suspended for posting "abusive language" on his principal's Facebook wall. The boy had sent a friend request to his principal, Vandana Tandon, and her daughter had accepted the request by mistake. A week later, when Tandon logged into her account, she saw boy's obscene comments on her wall. The boy's father in turn alleged that the principal had retaliated with even more obscene remarks. Many students misuse the internet and it is time that they know that social networking is not child's play. 

Living in the social networking world is like treading a double-edged sword. How can anyone forget when a report on Indian students even made headlines on the BBC? A leading Chandigarh school, Vivek High School, suspended 16 students for writing rude messages regarding a female teacher. All started when a high school student initiated an online "thread" by posting images of his test scores alongside "rude and abusive" remarks. The "abusive" thread soon became a regular forum for the school's senior students to indulge in teacher-bashing, until a week later one of the faculties found it by chance. The school management suspended all the 16 students indulged in abusive remarks. 

Though one might wonder if the school’s action infringed students’ privacy and right to free expression, and has no business to peep into their personal and online lives, we have to think the sort of impact it leaves on the victim. So there’s some reason when the principals of most schools discourage virtual interaction with students, some of them even going to the extent of strictly forbidding teachers from becoming friends with students via social media like Facebook, Orkut or MySpace. I had even heard that the Bangalore International School is very strict regarding this and the principal there strictly monitors and takes firm action against some teachers who accept requests from students!

Recently, I watched a programme where Facebook becomes a tool to express vengeance. Students get into a minor squabble at school and a few of them attack a girl on FB. They create fake accounts in their friend’s name and make insinuating middle names. Since it is very easy to get the profile pictures of people, they photoshop her photos and post some really derogatory stuff in the activities column, forcing the girl to end her life. A minor fight at the school ends in the death of the teenage girl. 

It is not just in India, even schools abroad have ordered or urged teachers not to "friend" students on social-networking sites. Some also have strengthened guidelines governing school employees' use of social-networking sites. But that’s not all. There are reports coming from the West when teachers suspended for involving with students. One headline in the Huffington Post read: ‘Teachers FIRED For Flirting On Facebook With Students’, another in the Newser read: ‘3 Teachers Fired for Flirting With Students on Facebook’. The report said: 

Bad idea: Kissing your 18-year-old former student on the lips. Worse idea: Taking a picture of it. Totally insane idea: Posting that picture to Facebook. It’s just one of the crazy stories coming out of New York City, where at least three educators in the past six months have been fired for having inappropriate student-teacher relations on the social networking site. 

The other two fired teachers, both male, are accused of flirting with female students via Facebook. The other is accused of sending inappropriate messages, like telling one girl she was pretty and another that her “boyfriend [doesn’t] deserve a beautiful girl like you.” 

Another in the New York Post read: ‘Teachers fired for flirting on Facebook with students’. One of the booted employees is former Bronx teacher Chadwin Reynolds, who "friended" about a half-dozen girl students and wrote creepy comments like, "This is sexy," under some of their Facebook photos. Reynolds, a former Fordham HS for the Arts teacher, allegedly even tried to get one teen to go out with him by getting her phone number and sending her flowers, candy and a teddy bear. He even posted a tasteless tagline that read: "I'm not a gynecologist, but I'll take a look inside." 

Another ex-DOE employee -- Laurie Hirsch, 30, a former para-professional at Bryant HS in Long Island City, Queens -- was canned in May for her steamy Facebook shenanigans involving a student. She had posted a photo of her kissing an 18-year-old male former student on the lips, which sparked an investigation. The student subsequently told probers at the Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation that he had had sex with Hirsch about 10 times in her apartment last year, and records revealed 2,700 phone contacts between the pair over a six-month period. 

In Manhattan, substitute teacher Stephen D'Andrilli also "friended" several female students at Essex Street Academy on Facebook and sent inappropriate messages. He allegedly sent one girl a message telling her she was pretty and told her he had tried to visit her during one of her Saturday classes. To another young girl, he wrote that her "boyfriend [did not] deserve a beautiful girl like you". 

As part of a wider probe into inappropriate teacher conduct, a fourth employee -- a male teacher at La Guardia HS -- was found to be giving extra credit to students who "friended" him. He was not disciplined.

I feel it is safer for teachers and students to be interacting on the educational plane, at schools or colleges, but not on a friendship plane. Socialising on Facebook can cross over into areas that can be potentially dangerous. One student even called his teacher fat on Facebook. In February 2011, a California high school student was suspended after updating his FB status with rude remarks about his teacher's weight. A high school student referred to his biology teacher, Cimino, as a "fat a-- who should stop eating fast food, and is a d-----bag" after Cimino assigned his classes three times more homework than usual in December 2010, Mashable.com reported. Sacramento’s Mesa Verde High School was notified of the Facebook post and reportedly suspended the student for one day on charges of “cyber-bullying”.  But according to the  San Franciso Chronicle, the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to school authorities asserting that Tobolski had been within his right to free speech when posting the "fat a--" comment to Facebook!

Coming back to closed-knit societies like India and other Asian countries, there are a lot of young and unmarried teachers who are friends with their students. Their interactions on Facebook can be misconstrued or misinterpreted. Children are protected by the legal system, but teachers can always become victims, as social networking blurs, the line dividing teachers and students, diminishing the former's respect and making it difficult to deal with students in the classroom. 

Even abroad, they are getting very cautious when it comes to social networking sites. The National Union of Teachers in UK recently warned teachers against befriending students on Facebook. The state of Louisiana went a step further and made it illegal for students-teachers to interact in cyberspace. Maybe in India also, there should be some strict rules barring befriending their teachers students on Facebook.

But it doesn’t mean that students should not be in touch with their teachers through social networking sites. Facebook can be a good way to stay in touch with ex-students. When I was a teacher, I never wished to let students enter my private space. They don't need to know who I chat with, what I did on my weekends or what my or my friends’ hobbies are. I would not feel comfortable if students comment on updates that were related to my personal life. I am friends with my lecturers and professors, but I’m very cautious and refrain myself from posting any comments on their personal status messages or personal photographs. I respect their freedom and would never cross my limits. 

But I have also seen some of my friends who are working as teachers befriending their students. Some of them even feel that FB is a great medium for understanding students. When they are down, they console them, share their victories and motivate them before exams, on the FB. But I wonder how far are they successful in striking the right balance when it comes to their comments on students’ personal status messages or their students’ comments on their personal status messages.