In this article from The Washington Post, by Caitlin Dewey, she opens by describing the connection between the internet fringe culture of 4chan and similar sites. Dewey specifically cites 4chan’s connection with the recent shooting on the Oregon College Campus. Fring culture web sites are message boards notorious for their political incorrectness, hate, and memes. The main theme of the article is how the internet can be an outlet for people with severe mental illness. Dewey discusses a message board on the website Redit, “Many of FA’s members, the group’s moderator believes, suffer from severe depression; he can recall three forum members who have attempted suicide.” Dewey goes on to talk about “forever alone” boards where lonely people post personal ads. The ad are almost never answered, or work out to successful relationships. This starts a cycle of depression, because these people feel even more alone than before. Then the participants are driven to suicide.
I believe that the article is correct when it states that what people say on the internet anonymously can be a look into what is going on in their head. In the article, Dewey, states that there was a post on the /b/ form of 4chan (/b/ is a message board found on 4chan know for its dark posts).
The author of the aforementioned post threatened to kill people. The /b/ moderators are trying to track down the author. They are suspicions that the author was John Hailin, the Oregon Community College shooter. Perhaps the shooting could have been prevented had we been able to identify the IP address of the author.
The author of the aforementioned post threatened to kill people. The /b/ moderators are trying to track down the author. They are suspicions that the author was John Hailin, the Oregon Community College shooter. Perhaps the shooting could have been prevented had we been able to identify the IP address of the author.
After reading Dewey’s discussion regarding the mysterious post tied to the Oregon shooting, I question the responsibility of the moderators. Everyone on the internet has an IP address identifying their server. I think that the moderators should be able to contact the police and give the IP address if a post is something that could endanger people's lives. The dilemma is that this could be a violation of the posters freedom of speech.
Dewey goes on to discuss “forever alone” boards. ”Forever alone” boards are sites where people with disability and mental illness chat. Dewey explains that because people with mental illness are drawn to the site, they offer little support to each other. The participants have a negative effect on each other. In the end these boards make already depressed people even more depressed. I agree with Dewey's conclusion that these sites are not beneficial.
In conclusion, I think that message boards such as 4chan, Reddit, and others are not the best place for people to use as an outlet. They tend to harbor people with depression and even mental illnesses.
I'm afraid I don't really know that much about the topic but from what I know, everything sounds logical enough. You are a moderator with an IP address that claims to want to commit suicide or maybe even more unspeakable acts, what is the reason for not doing something about it? As for the negative effects on people on websites like 4chan and Reddit, I don't know that much about either, but from what I do know, depressed people shouldn't be around other depressed people because of the worsening depression, but rather people who are happy and enjoy life so that it may kinda radiate or something. Sounds a bit more scientifically sound to me at least. Personal bits aside, great job, very interesting topic, you covered more than just one topic/issue stated in the article, you branched out a bit, which is pretty cool. People tend to grab something and run with it, and stay with it (guilty as charged). But good job!
ReplyDeleteThank you, I feel better about this paper now
DeleteBen,
ReplyDeleteFirst the format of your writing is all over the place. In your "reflection" you gave me you set goals that had nothing to do with writing so really I cannot judge your resolve. You need to be specific with the goals you set for what you will work on regarding your writing. I want you to be responsible for what you want to work on too, not just based on my feedback. Topic sentence lacks appropriate source information-no title, no link, newspaper should be italicized-it's the little things. You need to give background into what 4chan and fringe internet is because you lost me. You give some good summary points, but it ends abruptly. More background is needed. Your first sentence in your response does not make sense. It is very intriguing as to the topic, but I am not sure that I am clear. I like some of the commentary you give. But you need to bring this together; use transitions between your ideas and be clear as to what is being presented.