Numerous times throughout the day, I scroll through my twitter feed. The wide array of content includes informative news, jokes that make me laugh out loud, and thought-provoking positions on large-scale issues, all described in 140 characters or fewer.
I’ve known that social media is troubled, but this concept didn’t hit home until my twitter feed brought me a video from Just Not Sports earlier this week. This PSA #MoreThanMean highlights the harassment of female sports journalists through social media. The video has innocent men read off tweets that had been sent to Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro, two high-profile females in sports journalism, to exemplify a sickening, eye-opening reality.
Spain and DiCaro had seen all the comments, but the men reading them had not. And although the women said they were no longer fazed by the harsh sentiments they face daily, the direct confrontation was challenging and uncomfortable.
I watched the four-minute video four times through, and by the end, my body was numb and my eyes were filled with tears. When I tried to share what I had just watched with my parents, my mouth couldn’t form words. It was too revolting.
The men reading the threats and insults to the victim’s faces could hardly manage to spit out such demeaning words. They struggled in fear and disgust while saying things like, “I hope your boyfriend beats you,” and “I hope you get raped again.”
The mistreatment presented in #MoreThanMean should not be accepted as a standard of the internet or ignored because it isn’t as real as a direct confrontation. This video is a call for action that we all need to be increasingly aware and careful of the harm of social media.
The screens of our cellphones and laptops place a barrier among victims, abusers, and witnesses that delegitimizes the degree of harassment. It hinders a thorough thought of actions and limits any intervention.
And yet, the obvious empathy of the men faced with the task to read the difficult comments restores my faith in this new, technologically integrated network that over three million strong have viewed.
#MoreThanMean certainly raises a critical awareness of the verbal attacks that posts on social media. We wonder, however, if the abusers who viewed the clip took this to heart.
