Evil triumphs when good people do nothing.
In Sidney, Australia a 16 year old teen committed suicide after being persistently bullied on Facebook. The taunting continued after her death. Tribute pages established by friends who lost someone they loved are being hijacked by the people who contributed to her state of mind.
Please pause for a moment to think about this. Growing up is hard enough without living your life in a bubble filled with vindictive people throwing word bombs at you online. Some of the ugliness that spews from children towards others is unspeakable. "Kids will be kids" is not an acceptable response. There has to be accountability for actions that affect others.
Reading this article and watching the video about the death of Daani Sanders broke my heart. I visited a couple of the tribute pages to verify the story. The hate comments sickened me. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends. It's despicable that they have to be subjected to the nastiness of others during their time of grief.
Who knows what ultimately motivates people to try to destroy another human being. I certainly don't presume to have that knowledge, but I do have some basic beliefs. I believe that God created each of us for a specific purpose. That purpose includes making the world a better place. My personal mission is to leave everything better than I find it. I always try to do just that. Sometimes I succeed. Sometimes I fail.
After reading about Daani, I wondered what motivated the children and where was the adult supervision? It puzzled me until I returned to the social media world.
Cyber-bullying isn't just for kids. Adults are doing it too.
And they are much better at it because they have more experience and resources. For example, Chris Brogan recently announced that he was presenting a webinar on Google+. Participation costs $47. After his announcement, warnings against paying anyone to teach you how to use Google+ started popping up. Some mentioned Chris, others didn't.
Why? Do people think that issuing warnings against hiring someone else means more business for them? Or, are they looking for the traffic increase that comes with bashing others?
In a TechCrunch interview, Gary Vaynerchuk commented,"99.5 percent of the people that walk around and say they are a social media expert or guru are clowns." The response was swift and brutal. Did he say that to sell more books? Maybe. Is he right? Yes.
He continued by saying, "we are going to live through a devastating social media bubble." Anyone who focuses on the clown statement without considering the bursting of the bubble is a fool. Could it be that his words hit a little too close to home?
Social media is supposed to be a better way. Ask any self-respecting social media guru and he or she will tell you that it is about pulling people in not pushing your messages onto others. It's unfortunate that many of the gurus are the ones pushing their messages the hardest.
People are afraid to enter the social media arena because they might make a mistake. "What if I tweet something stupid like Kenneth Cole?" is a question that I hear almost daily. They are not afraid that they will alienate customers because they know their relationships are good and their customers are forgiving when it comes to honest mistakes. They are afraid of the cyber-bullies.
For all I know, Gary V may have had me in mind when he mentioned clowns. And, Chris Brogan may be selling "water is wet" content. It's not my job to contest Gary's opinion or Chris' content. It is my job to continuously test and study this new channel so I can find opportunities for my clients.
I would like to respectfully request that if you agree with me that the cyber-bullying needs to stop please don't support the adults doing it with retweets, comments, or traffic to their websites or blogs. If you see children being bullied, speak up and give them support so they may have a chance to survive this wicked world. And, say a prayer for Daani's family and friends. Maybe together we can make the world a little friendlier.