MC Guffee, Henry Jenkins... returns

“People who may not ever meet face to face and thus have few real-world connections with each other can tap into the shared framework of popular culture to facilitate communication” (457)

Henry Jenkins argues that through the social media, communication is fostered through cyberspace, which subsequently, lacks face-to-face interaction. Losing face-to-face interaction strips the real from human interaction in multiple ways. Namely, it strips the norms of face-to-face social interaction to allow each individual to say whatever they desire. Conversing in such a manner has no true consequences, which then causes social media users to feel a strange sense of anonymity.

Take for example, the Jackson Katz presentation and how students utilized Yik Yak to publicly antagonize Katz on both his physical as well as personal attributes. Free from owning what is said, Yik Yak users can break social norms of conversation to condemn, harass, and terrorize in ways that are horrifically problematic. Yik Yak turned a public event, intended to help students grow as people and members of our society, into a destructive roast of a prominent public figure. This roast was not only destructive towards Jackson Katz, but also towards the Rollins College community. As a reflection of our student body, Yik Yak users offensively condemned Katz and in turn rescinded the hard work of Rollins College to create our brand of global citizenship.

From name calling to profane language, social media gives users the opportunity to enact the most offensive instances of racism, misogyny, and other social injustices to terrorize others. Although social media can have many positives, its loss of referent to reality and face-to-face interaction is detrimental to our evolution as a society. A sense of respect for oneself and especially others is lost when the social norms of human interaction are boiled down to communication through social media.

In my opinion, and in accordance with Jenkins, social media allows users to “other” others by dehumanizing them and revoking their right to be respected as real people out in the world somewhere. In summation, social media removes the referent of reality from human interaction to create a new form of interaction that has the potential to dehumanize users without any repercussions.