Social Dilemmas
I found the social dilemmas the Shirky discussed in chapter
8 (Shirky 2008) to be extremely profound in two
areas. First, the blog that was created within what was FKA for Young Miss, and then Your Magazine, then just YM, was extremely disturbing. Naturally,
as the father of four sons and two step-sons, there never would have been a
reason that I would have even visited this site, let alone know of the
popularity of taking pride in young girls who got together to discuss how to
remain anorexic (Shirky states that they became known as Pro-Ana) as well as bulimia
and other mental disorders These disorders YM
did not want to be affiliated with, therefore shutting down their blog.
One thing that I believe that YM could have done however, is
monitored their website closer, putting into their code that every post that
contained certain keywords, which other blogs and chat rooms have in place that
automatically either redirect an email address to one within their own, or even
censor keywords, this case pro-ana, anorexia, bulimia and other such terms
would show up as **&&^%&** to block such content, then that user
would simply be eliminated. At this point, as their IT director, I would have
made it mandatory for a cookie to be dropped on their IP Address and prevent
that person from logging on under a different identity. Although this has a
simple “go around,” many users do not understand how to do it and thereby would
be shut down by default.
“Sorting the good from the bad is challenging in part
because we’re used to social disapproval making it hard for groups to form.” (Shirky 2008) He speaks of social loss and
how these new found freedoms, due to the Internet[i],
are often stymied. Governmental interference, such as that of the Singapore
government blocking content of blogging prior to a 2005 loses all respect for mankind’s
most basic freedom, Freedom of Speech. This is similar to how content is
blocked/ restricted in countries such as China, North Korea and others where
state owned media controls/ owns the Internet providers.
Reference
[i] Shirky
uses the word Internet without being capitalized. As an avid reader and past
high school teacher of English, Internet is a proper noun and I am not sure how
the editors allowed for this word to be published without capitalization. This
I would like to get clarification on.
