Acting Wisely and Ethically on Social Media
A public call-out for institutional failures usually comes after a person has tried to settle issues internally only to be shut out. For anyone who would judge people posting about harassment and discrimination on social media, I recommend watching Sarah Ahmed’s talk, On Complaint. People who call out abuses in their institutions do their communities a service.
It is also true that discussions on social media take on a life of their own. When posts go viral, meaning they become widely disseminated across the internet, people can lose their hold on the original narrative. Proportionality is extraordinarily difficult to maintain when social media algorithms pour gas on the most extreme views for maximum clicks. YouTuber Sarah Z’s discussion of the “West Elm Caleb” incident is an insightful examination of how an individual’s petty behavior became a social media circus far beyond the scope of the initial wrongdoing.
We have a moral responsibility to take whistle-blowers seriously and protect victims whom our institutions have failed. We also have a moral obligation to ask if our conduct on social media is about justice or the theatre of public shaming.
When posting on social media I would ask the following questions before hitting send:
1) Am I writing about an issue that would be better resolved with a private email or phone call?
Obviously, the answer is sometimes no. Egregious abuse and systemic discrimination will not be defused over a couple of cold beers—they need to be unwaveringly called out. However, following the advice of Sarah Schulman’s book Conflict is not Abuse, I have been surprised by how often a private conversation has defused a misunderstanding in professional and personal relationships. Given a chance, many people will come to a conversation in good faith if you plainly state your concerns and how you have been hurt. Only you can determine what mode of response is appropriate to your situation. That being said, I have never regretted attempting private conversation as at least a first attempt in conflict resolution.2) Do I actually have a relevant perspective?
Seriously. Do you have relevant experience and knowledge to add something to the discussion that hasn’t already been said? Do you have relevant information from reliable sources? Reading a headline alone does not count!3) Can my perspective be meaningfully conveyed within the character limit?
Facebook and Instagram have more long-form options, but it’s pretty hard to unpack “the big issues” within the character limit of a tweet. What would a bad-faith reading of your comment say?4) If this somehow went viral, would I stand by this comment?
If you have a twinge of doubt in your gut, hold off on posting. Quarantine your thought in “your drafts” and see how you feel in tomorrow. For what it’s worth, I’ve never ended up posting a quarantined tweet. I felt doubt for a reason.It is true that you may delete posts you regret, but if the post gets enough traction, someone may take a screenshot to keep for posterity. This is unlikely for small accounts and posts that get few likes and shares. However, viral posts are often screenshotted to be passed around for posterity.
5) Is this comment in line with my values?
In person, many of us in the literary community say we are committed to nuance and restorative measures to wrongdoing. Those principles seem to go out the window on social media. If you would not call someone names to their face, is it ethically consistent to do so online where your thoughts may get liked and reposted by thousands of people?6) Is adding oxygen to a social media fire helpful?
Sometimes you will see a situation online where you think someone is being unfairly bullied. Posting something defending that person seems like the logical response. However, just by reading related posts and adding your commentary, you’re telling the algorithm that the situation is engaging. You think you’re helping, but you may also be prolonging the fiasco. The best way to end an ugly situation on social media may be to log off for a few days and let the algorithm focus on something else. If someone you know if being bullied, give them a call to check in, or even better, take them out for a coffee away from the screens.Works Cited
Ahmed, Sara. “On Complaint.” WheelerCentre. YouTube. https://youtu.be/4j_BwPJoPTE. 28 Oct 2018.
Sarah Z. “The Horrifying Panopticon of West Elm Caleb.” YouTube. https://youtu.be/EeCi4CSqtzw 2 Mar 2022.
Schulman, Sarah. Conflict is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair. Arsenal Pulp Press. 2016.
Content by Paige Welsh, 15 April 2022
Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0
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