Trolling, outing, liking and other problems of the era of social networks
Digital technology has penetrated our daily lives. and significantly expanded both our capabilities and the list of potential problems. Simultaneously with psychotherapeutic cats and new forms of communication, the Internet has presented us with new forms of invading people into each other’s spaces. And although these invasions occur online, their effects are quite real and can seriously hurt.
Sociologists and psychologists agree that the main innovation of the era, which changed our behavior, of course, social networks are gigantic and global communication platforms. They inform, unite and unite people around the world, erase cultural barriers, help to find like-minded people, to get support, that is, they make a lot of things available that can only be dreamed of. But the downside of accessibility is vulnerability. In social networking, eerie-looking, ugly or just obsessive forms of behavior, psychological pressure of control and invasion are born. Communication on the Internet can look unpleasant and annoying, and may also pose a threat to the state of mind.
Any social network is not just a database. This is a combination of various forms of communication, and a source of feelings and emotions, and a way to relax, and a variant of procrastination. Reflection of users over the frequency and duration of their own Internet sessions has led to the phenomenon of digital detox as one of the strategies designed to deliberately deprive themselves of the Internet environment for a while. However, not everyone is fully capable of abandoning the Internet. So it becomes important to define psychologically dangerous zones and understand how to maintain psychological security under the new rules of the game, where social networks are an important multifunctional tool in life. It is necessary to figure out what unpleasant phenomena can occur, how they manifest themselves and whether there is an opportunity to distance themselves.
Trolling
This social provocation - to pick up, catch, force to argue with the obviously absurd position, try to protect and justify common sense - one of the most famous strategies of psychological attack on the Internet. At first glance, it is suitable only for teenagers. But no, people are experiencing dedication to trolling and are much older, who have long overcome school age. His strategies range from elegant to thick, depending on the tasks and skills of the aggressor. It is worth remembering a column about cunnilingus, making fun of the ideas of radical feminism: the provocation in the text turned out to be thin enough to be accepted by the readers at face value. As a result, everyone was in an awkward position.
Trolling sprouted and flourished in various areas of information spaces to such an extent that a whole "Troll Factory" was established in St. Petersburg, which worked in the information war. Fertile, “feed” themes for trolls are the most resonant, about which there is no consensus in society: politics, religion, identity. But, as a matter of fact, any remark or expressed opinion can become an object for trolling. An important strategy of trolling is anonymous biting of participants of the same environment: provocateurs, as in offline activities, find particular pleasure in sowing discord, disrupting the balance of power, and revealing the vulnerability of a certain community. This phenomenon is by no means new: scientific work was written about the phenomenon of virtual trolling back in the 90s.
The phrase “do not feed the troll” has already become part of the modern rhetoric of a defensive stance. The low degree of responsibility for the antics, the condition of which is anonymity, although it gives the troll some freedom, but its power is not so great if you maintain composure and find a provocative bottom in the replicas. There is a secondary effect: being distributed and expected everywhere, trolling is such a daily form of psychological attack that the level of susceptibility to it decreases in the reverse progression.
Kibertravlya
The phenomenon of harassment, or bulling, occurred long before the era of social networks. He is defined as physical or mental terror by the group, the pursuit of one of the participants. If in mild cases, bullying lowers the emotional background of the victim and her self-esteem, then in severe cases, he is able to bring it to suicidal actions. In this case, the persecution is not always a direct attack. The strategies of the group in the attack can be different: from gossip and insults behind them to the boycott. The task is to lead the victim to the loss of self-confidence, to demoralize, to get a sense of superiority, to separate from the victim, exposing it to inferior.
Almost any, from the point of view of the aggressor, a humiliating, non-neutral feature of the victim can be chosen for ridicule and humiliation: age, height, appearance, nationality, place of residence. The point of the application for bullying can be anything, and maybe even a flat place. It happens that the attackers create fake victim profiles, "defaming it", the victim is sent photos of offensive content, and so on: from all this, the attackers get emotional satisfaction. Particularly “lucky” to those who actually got into a situation that is considered to be “shameful”: not so long ago, Monica Lewinsky made an emotionally powerful speech at TED, telling how her relationship with the president coincided with the birth of online bullying and how psychological it was a blow.
For persecution, any feature can be chosen: age, height, appearance, nationality, orientation
Bulling is not necessarily directed against people known to the aggressor: even a random counter can become a victim. Some time ago, in the Moscow and St. Petersburg metros, the practice of photographing passengers looking or photographing subjectively was awkward or tasteless. Photos of the victims were laid out in the relevant communities, where they were discussed and ridiculed. This form of bullying may not be seen at all by the victim, but nonetheless reinforces the culture of harassment and makes it more socially acceptable.
The main research of bullying is aimed at analyzing the situation in a teenage environment. It is believed that teenagers (just remember the movie "Scarecrow") - the most vulnerable audience. Greater emotional sensitivity and lesser criticality increase the risks of standing in the position of someone who is poisoning and not finding a way out of the victim’s position. But, in fact, harassment is not necessarily a problem only for minors. Both teenagers and adults should be taught that there are several opportunities for salvation on the Internet: first, try to distance yourself from the painful thread if you can (delete correspondence, leave the community). Secondly, in the case of cyberbullying it is useful to take screenshots, keep the correspondence, publicize the aggression, complain to the technical support of the social network. And it is always important to maintain a share of criticality in relation to what is happening, pronounced by the attackers, although sometimes it is very difficult.
Outing
Unlike informed and voluntary coming-out, outing is the disclosure of information about another person’s sexual orientation and gender identity without his consent. LGBTQIs in Russia have a lot of problems, which is in the legislative sphere, which is at the level of a common cultural perception. Against this background, much of what concerns the openness of the status of non-traditional sexual orientation or gender identity becomes politically tinged information that can work against a person. And especially in the case when this information becomes public knowledge as a result of outing. The specificity of our country is such that outing can be a serious problem, since the topic of gay or sexual identity, on the one hand, is not understood and not accepted by everyone, on the other hand, it has tangible effects.
Discussions on this matter in Russia are still rare, since this problem is not considered to be paramount and the attitude of society to the phenomenon itself has not yet formed: it is worth recalling the recent precedent with outing committed by Ksenia Sobchak. In other societies, with a longer history of the LGBT movement, the question, in essence, is this: is it possible to consider outing as a practice that allows, albeit forcibly, to remove "from the closet" the powerful hypocrites - hidden homosexuals who adopt homophobic laws, or Is this strategy totally unacceptable in any case?
It is possible to protect oneself from outgoing only by destroying the homophobic foundation itself, which allows this practice to exist.
With a variety of attitudes towards outing in theory, it is important to understand that in practice his object can seriously suffer at least psychologically. An attack on the “other” in the media space can be extremely painful, given the possible statements of people deprived of empathy and delicacy. As a result, in a society where homophobic views are popular, it is quite capable of becoming a punitive procedure. The story with a teacher from St. Petersburg, who was dismissed from school with a charge of gay, received a wide response. Timur Isaev, who, on his own initiative, decided to fight with people who, in his opinion, unworthy of teaching, collected a “dossier” of the material found in the network and achieved dismissal of the “guilty”.
It should be understood that outing is not a problem of a completely restructured society, and it is possible to protect against it only by destroying the homophobic foundation itself, which allows this practice to exist. Until that bright moment, stigmatization forces some people in our society to keep orientation / identity secret, paying special attention to concealing personal data that can harm. After all, any information that gets on the Internet can be used against us.
Stalking
One of the most threatening forms of pressure on the Internet is targeted persecution, tracking the victim. In contrast to bullying, it is characterized by actively casting the victim with messages of pseudo-positive or complimentary content. The era of the Internet has made it possible to make stalking a fast and simple tool of psychological threat. Anyone can be subjected to this misfortune, regardless of the degree of fame in the media space. Some studies indicate that women are more susceptible to cyber-stalking. In a number of European countries, stalking is equated with an offense and punishment is imposed for it.
There is an important point: the boundary between reality and virtuality in stalking can be of varying degrees of permeability. The danger and sense of threat may be the higher, the more information the stalker knows. But even without the ability to get to the victim, stalking is a test for the psyche and nerves. Almost all social networks are equipped with the necessary settings in order to ensure the possibility of protection from selected users. First, as a preventive measure, you can change the visibility settings of information for both outsiders and those listed as subscriptions. Secondly, if it is already clear that the stalker has reached you and is leading his attack, you can defend yourself precisely: add to the blacklist, restrict his ability to comment, complain to the social network support service.
Motives of stalking can vary, and assess the threat may not always turn out correctly, so in any case it is more useful to be reinsured, and on the Internet as well. Stalking a stalker is unpleasant, incomprehensible and frightening. These effects are caused by his encroachment on personal space and a sense of his own insecurity. Anti-stalking strategies extend beyond the network. In different countries they are carried out with varying degrees of success. For example, in Holland, the Stichting Anti Stalking Union was created, which unites the victims of terror, and in Germany there is a Stop-stalking portal that provides assistance to all victims of stalking.
Narcissism and exhibitionism
Admiration and the inclination to parade the positive (in the sense approved by society) aspects of their lives are to some extent subject to each. In fact, "Self" is not just the word of the year before last, according to the Oxford Dictionary - this is a new cultural code of our time. The ability to independently make a self-portrait and immediately upload it to the network has become a characteristic and recognizable way of activity in social networks. They just don’t accuse selfies: of demonstrating self-doubt, trying to earn more social capital, and one-sided perception of their appearance and personality. Even in the creation of a physically dangerous situation in the process of photographing - the loss of control over the environment, especially in the case of a “selfie against the background of an event”, is clearly demonstrated by the dramatic story of a baseball player who received the ball in the back of the head.
The main problem that psychologists point out in self-practice is narcissism and exhibitionism, which accompany and characterize this genre. A modern interpretation of narcissism can be found in Baudrillard, Lipovetsky, Bauman, and it is quite applicable to the problem: online in general and selfie culture in particular, give a new breath to the usual psychological strategies of self-admiration and public demonstration. It is much easier, faster, and less effort to postulate, manifest, stimulate narcissism or exhibitionistic nature in social networks. So these two phenomena are very freely located in the network space. Social networks become an opportunity to show, prove and label themselves, their existence. In essence, it is useful. But where the limits of admissibility go, everyone determines for himself independently - it is important to distance oneself and understand whether there is a feeling of “harmfulness” from the number of photos being laid out.
Licking
Against the background of other psychological problems caused by the Internet, liking is one of the most seemingly minor. But everything is not so cloudless. It is worth starting with the fact that the very moment of like and sound accompanying it, scientists have identified as a source of hedonistic pleasure for someone who gets this very like. The theory is very behavioral, with the simplest scheme "stimulus - reaction".
One of the most minimalistic tools of social contact in the network, likes and all sorts of their analogues have a truly magical power and ubiquity. Sometimes a lot is invested in a simple action of a like, and sometimes nothing. In likes, it is customary to look for hidden implications (hence the popular meme "She liked my ava, probably, we are all serious"). Licking can be an easy way to agree, give a compliment, demonstrate interest. Like has its (not universal and flexible) label marking. For example, to come and randomly zaylayk everything on the page from someone is a sign of bad taste, as well as to like under negative information.
Psychological discomfort can cause an insufficient number of likes: no matter how ridiculous this may sound for someone, but write a post / post a photo / voice your position for any reason and not get some amount of approval in some cases in our time can be quite painful. The pursuit of likes offered to us by the online culture, the desire to get our portion of approval by all means is diagnosed by the researchers as not the most useful from the psychological point of view, dependence and requires a conscious attitude towards it.
Blurred boundaries of personal and public
The problem of an online society is that it does not always clearly and transparently dictate its own rules. Each participant in the network space to one degree or another is a developer and tester of their own strategy of behavior in the network. To lay out or not photos of your little child, especially in idiotic situations for him? How often to change profile photos? How much detail to share vacation details, ask for tips? All this becomes part of a personal strategy on the Internet.
Meanwhile, personal in social networks easily goes into the category of public. Replicated, publicized information may not originally intended for a wide range of people. Information, even for a small circle of the closest, is breaking out beyond its limits. Leaks of photos of celebrities (and not only), the publication of nude photos of the former for the purpose of revenge, hacking accounts - a lot of variations. All this requires of us a meaningful and reflective attitude to information and its protection. It is important to understand that information must be controlled first and foremost by ourselves.
Another layer of problems associated with the possibilities of the Internet is the history of previous relationships, remaining in social networks, former partners in subscribers and giving rise to all sorts of psychological inconveniences and ethical hitch ups of the situation. Seeing the former, assuming real ones, watching the development of relationships (and yes, mutual likes) - all these neuroses can come to life and feed on social networks every day. We see something that previously did not have such wide access - or access at all. Видим чужих детей, завтраки, отношения и страдания. Интернет дает отличную возможность сделать видимым и публичным многое из того, что раньше оставалось в сфере приватного.And the main thing in this new world is to maintain its own internal balance: to use the opportunities to make life more interesting and to save oneself from potential problems.
The boundaries and frameworks of social interactions when communicating online are quite difficult. Developing along the way, strategies for interacting with new issues is the task of everyone. This has to be done right here and now. All forms of Internet threats are united by the ability to destabilize and shake the mental well-being of users, so identifying and defending is an important point in preventing trouble. After all, anyone who participates in online communication has had to face one of the types of psychological pressure.
But there is good news. Social networks are much better off-line everyday organizations and adapt to the needs of the user. It is definitely worth using for good. Isolating oneself from traumatic experiences on the net means self-defense and preserving one’s private space from attacks where it seems necessary.
Photo: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 via Shutterstock