Young children know that name-calling is wrong. Tweens
are taught the perils of online bullying and revenge porn: It’s
unacceptable and potentially illegal.
But celebrities who engage in flagrant attacks on
social media are rewarded with worldwide attention. US President
Donald Trump’s most popular tweet to date is a video that shows him
fake-pummelling a personification of CNN. Reality TV star Rob
Kardashian was trending last week after attacking his former fiance
on Instagram in a flurry of posts so explicit his account was shut
down. He continued the attacks on Twitter, where he has more than
7.6 million followers.
While public interest in bad behaviour is nothing new,
social media has created a vast new venue for incivility to be
expressed, witnessed and shared. And experts say it’s affecting
social interactions in real life.
“Over time, the attitudes and behaviours that we are
concerned with right now in social media will bleed out into the
physical world,” said Dr Karen North, a psychologist and director
of the University of Southern California’s Digital Social Media
Programme. “We’re supposed to learn to be polite and civil in
society. But what we have right now is a situation where a number
of role models are acting the opposite of that ... And by watching
it, we vicariously feel it, and our own attitudes and behaviours
change as a result.”
Dr Catherine Steiner-Adair, a psychologist and author
of The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family
Relationships in the Digital Age, said she’s already seeing the
effects.
She said she’s been confronted by students across the
country asking why celebrities and political leaders are allowed to
engage in name-calling and other activities for which they would be
punished.
On some middle-school campuses, “Trumping” means to
grab a girl’s rear end, she said.
And teenagers have killed themselves over the kind of
slut-shaming and exposure of private images Kardashian leveled at
Blac Chyna, with whom he has an infant daughter.
“We are normalising behaviours, and it’s affecting some
kids,” Dr Steiner-Adair said. “And what’s affecting kids that is
profound is their mistrust of grown-ups who are behaving so badly.
Why aren’t they stopping this?”
Social media satisfies a human need for connection.
Users bond over common interests and establish digital
relationships with their favourite public figures, following and
commenting on their lives just like they do their friends’.
Gossip is a bonding activity, and it doesn’t take a
Real Housewife to know people love to share dirt about others’
perceived misdeeds. Collective disapproval creates a feeling of
community, regardless of which side you’re on. Having a common
enemy is “one of the strongest bonding factors in human nature,” Dr
North said.
With 352,000 retweets, Mr Trump’s CNN-pummelling post
isn’t in the realm of Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscar selfie (3.4 million
retweets). And Kardashian’s rant against Chyna paled in popularity
with Beyonce’s Instagram pregnancy announcement, which collected 8
million likes.
Still, Mr Trump’s attack tweets have proven his most
popular, according to a new study by Ohio State University
Professor Jayeon “Janey” Lee.
“Attacks on the media were most effective,” Dr Lee said
of her analysis of tweets posted during the presidential campaign.
“Whenever Trump criticised or mocked the media, the message was
more likely to be retweeted and ‘favourited’.“
Mr Trump, who has 33.4 million Twitter followers, has
defended his social-media approach as “modern day
presidential”.
Cyber incivility, particularly when practiced by
cultural leaders, can have a profound impact on human relations, Dr
North said.
Studies show that young people who witness aggressive
behaviour in adults model and expand on that behaviour. She pointed
to Stanford University psychologist Albert Bandura’s famous “Bobo
Doll Experiment”, which found that kids who saw adults hit a doll
in frustration not only hit the doll as well, but attacked it with
weapons.
Social media is an atmosphere devoid of the social cues
that mitigate behaviour in real life, she said. When violating
social norms in person, there’s immediate feedback from others
through body language and tone of voice. No such indicators exist
online, and retweets can feel like validation.
Cruel and humiliating posts often become “an instant
hit online,” Dr Steiner-Adair said. “It’s one of the best ways to
become popular.”
Viral posts then get mainstream media attention,
spreading digital nastiness into everyday conversation.
By not expressly rejecting cruel or hateful online
behaviour, “we are creating a bystander culture where people think
this is funny,” she said.
“When we tolerate leaders — in the popular media like a
Kardashian, or a president — behaving in this way, we are creating
a very dangerous petri dish for massive cultural change,” Dr
Steiner-Adair said.
Young people, who may be the most plugged in, are
getting mixed messages as they form their moral concepts.
“It behoves us all to question why we are participating
in this mob of reactivity,” Dr Steiner-Adair said, “and what are
the character traits we need to model for our children.” AP
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