The article "Small Town Gossip Moves to Web and Turns Vicious" clearly showed me a few things about being mindful about what you say and surprised me about a few things. It discussed how people gossiping in small towns (first about harmless things like politics, eventually about their own neighbors) eventually moved to a website called "Topix", where your posts are anonymous and you can post anything you want. People in a town called Mountain Grove in Missouri, discussions eventually turned to vicious gossip that was posted on the Web anonymously, and had serious consequences. Such mean things were said (by adults!) that a woman considered suicide prior to seeing what people posted on the site. Her own neighbors gave her mean looks in the grocery store, talked about her, etc. It surprised me how even adults can be cyber bullies on the internet. In other small towns that used the same site, more consequences occured such as lawsuits, threats, and suicides. Who would've known that people could be so cruel? It was an interesting article to read because it made me recognize how truly mean people can be, even adults who are supposed to be the ones to put a stop to it. I realize more than ever that you have to be careful what you say, or the consequences can get bad.
To read the article, click here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/us/small-town-gossip-moves-to-the-web-anonymous-and-vicious.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
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