Natalie Rebisz '12
These days, posts on the Internet have been preceded by an infamous hash tag. Twitter, an online social networking service, is the recent surge to hit the modern, multimedia world and the innovator of these “hash tags”. Created in March 2006, Jack Dorsey is the man behind the madness of the site. When commenting on his website, Dorsey said, “We think of it as an information utility and a communications network.” On the site, individuals are given the ability to tweet, which is a post or a status, allowing messages of 140 characters or less. As more and more people get connected online and onto twitter, it has become a site of worldly communication and expression. However, in some cases, the site has caused numerous instances where the freedom of speech has been abused.
Twitter has become a free communication method throughout the world, but it has also lead to the defilement of freedom of speech and even federal policies. In the past year, twitter has been a part of numerous harassment, endangerment, and hate crimes. Participation in twitter has even resulted in the suicide of multiple individuals. Most recently, Rutgers University student, Dharun Ravi, was charged with a hate crime after using a webcam to tape his roommate, Tyler Clementi, kiss another man. Ravi would later turn to twitter where he posted the video, spread the news around the campus through the media site, and later posted his own comments on the issue. Tyler Clementi killed himself three days after the incident. The negative effects of Twitter, however, do not stop here.
Not only has the social media site caused such harassment and abuse claims, but it has also unintentionally affected many individuals' employment and work life. As twitter allows for nearly anything to be processed and posted, with few limitations, users believe they have the freedom to express themselves without the consequences. However, this is just not the case. As the world becomes much more connected to such social networking sites and the internet in general, many people fail to recognize the potential harm that their words could cause.
Recently in 2010, the French magazine, Marie Claire, stated that a woman who had been hired to the company “Cisco” was asked to leave her position, as she was fired for making a crude comment of sort on twitter. The comment was, "Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work." What seemed as a harmless joke at the time, led to the end of this woman’s career. However, this situation is not limited to just the business and work field. Colleges, schools, and even the government have been turning to the site to see what its fellow citizens are saying online, whether it is crude or inappropriate, or just a simple update. And so, although twitter has been beneficial for social and business organizations, communication, etc., it is not all it is cut out to be, as it continues to lead to numerous court cases and could be a danger to the lives of humanity. Therefore, whether you are or are not currently a user of this growing site, always think before you post online because you never know who may be watching.
