When Social Networking Goes Bad…
Remember I mentioned a two year old died earlier this week and his mother tweeted about the whole ordeal right after it was happening. Anyhow the shit hit the fan in regards to it. And this is why social networking, at least in the extent that this mother had done (sponsorship deals, thousands of followers, etc...) can go bad.
The national media managed to pick up on it. Not because of the fact that the child died, but rather because she literally was tweeting when he was dying. Not that this makes it her fault, accidents happen, and this accident happens to be one that happens far too often, and to the best of parents. But the fact that she was on Twitter has brought up many questions in general about Social Networks and the usage of them by people.
It's a balance really, some make money from it, some just use it as a way to release and talk with people, and some take it way too far. Do I know if the mother in this case took it too far? I don't know. She made a living from it, so I can't say it was taking it too far. I mean who wouldn't want to make a living that way? Sadly her form of making a living has now backfired and come around to really bite her in the ass. I think her Blogging and Social Networking career is officially over.
What's happened is she broadcast her life all over the internet, tweeting nearly all day about her activities. Then this horrible thing happens, and she does what she normally does, tweets about it. Well some people find the tweeting just odd, can't believe the story, and then there were just some morons, and managed to light a wild fire of fights on Twitter.
One person in particular seems to have taken the wrath of the Mommy Blogger community, and it's only fueled her to be more and more vocal about her judgement on the situation, so much so that she's appearing on MSNBC and in papers. What the outrage from the Mommy Blogger community has also done is ignited interest by news media outlets in the story in general, and they're trying to contact the family for information and responses to the vocal few who are talking. Of course the family wants nothing to do with it, they want their privacy and to be left alone.
Now this I would typically agree with, and think that it should have been that way from the beginning, but how can you go from broadcasting your life all day to thousands of people, to telling people to leave you alone and give you privacy? And this is where Social Networking in this manner can be harmful. When you've reached Mommy Blogger celebrity status, privacy sort of flies out the window. It's like Tiger Woods asking for privacy. It doesn't work that way. You live your life in the lime light, people are going to want answers, and sadly they'll want them from you.
People will say, but she's not a celebrity. Well yeah, technically she doesn't do anything remotely celebrity like, but she is a celebrity in the Mommy Blogging community, and sadly subject to the same crap as other celebrities would be as well. I mean imagine if this had been someone famous, like Brad Pitt and one of his children had passed away. You bet your ass there would be speculation, interview requests, all sorts of junk, and believe me this Mommy Blogging community would be the ones judging the hell out of the situation (they like to act like they wouldn't but I've seen it in the past). With popularity comes a lot of interest in things you would otherwise think not anyone's business.
Dr. Phil was sort of talking on this subject, not because of this incident he was just having a show on it, and talked about the pros and cons of social networking. It's a good show to watch. Social Networking can be a great thing, it just comes with some shitty consequences sometimes.
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Tweet, tweet, tweet…
The topic of conversation today has become, would you tweet if your child had just died?
Myself: No. Not right after it happened. I'm sure sometime afterwards I would put up a blog post and let people know, or have someone do it for me, but I wouldn't do it right afterwards.
Other people though do, and actually this whole thing with @Military_Mom isn't abnormal. I think to those who don't follow the Mommy Bloggers wouldn't know that this is typical, to either post on Facebook, Twitter, or their blog about things happening. So her posting right away, is not abnormal for the community. I think some were surprised at the speed of her posting, according to the timeline (based on the Tweet time stamps and the news articles) she was literally tweeting about the incident within a few minutes. But what's 30 minutes or an hour? I mean seriously?
But that's not what my post is meant to be about. My post is meant to be about the lessons we've learned in the past three days about Tweeting and whether in the future it's appropriate to use Twitter in this manner? I hadn't thought about it before because you've never seen such a situation. I think what happened here could have been avoided.
What happened is @Military_Mom posted that her son had been found in the pool (I'm paraphrasing, she deleted all the Tweets). Someone says something nasty, not sure who it was. Someone else said something nasty. Then one person asks for verification before sending donations in. What went wrong with this whole thing was that @Military_Mom responded.
I'm betting people being mean on Twitter in response to posts such as her's is not abnormal. What made this different is that the person that was being attacked, instead of just ignoring the 4 bad Tweets and focusing on the 100s of good ones, decided to respond to them. And then the "fire" had been set.
So maybe that's the lesson, don't respond to the negative posts. Recently I had some people decide to use Twitter as a way to attack me, and sorry girls, I really didn't read those responses. There was a reason, because I wasn't going to get into a flame war with people that I knew already I didn't like and didn't care about their opinion. I've responded to a few people about this current situation, but in the end I was just doing that because I had time, after I write this post I probably won't be responding to people anymore, mainly because you can't argue with stupid most of the time.
If we're using Twitter as a positive thing then we shouldn't respond to the negative at all. Luckily Twitter has built in features, the block function in particular, so that we don't have to see the bad people at all. And I think it should have been used. I understand though what she may have been thinking, but frankly she should have just left it alone, probably walked away from the phone/computer for a few days and then checked back in. It seems now that she has, perhaps someone convinced her to get off of it. And I hope for her sake she's staying away, because this crap is not something she should have to deal with at the moment. She should be dealing with her family and her other child.
Yesterday’s Tweets
- This morning was jam packed with stuff. Never made it to the gym though. #
- Aww man all I wanted to do was apply for a Dale Jr. BOA account and they don't make it clear so I applied for just a general NASCAR one! #
- Hmmm what to do now. Bored. #
- Okay this time I'm going to sign up with the right BOA account. #
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Yesterday’s Tweets
- Good Morning! Today is I think full of just seeing the lawyer. #
- Kaylee woke up this morning with her BSLs at 42! Now this is not good at all but. She isnt showing any symptoms at all! #
- Found another meter and it said 80! Seriously annoying! #
- Okay Party Invitations printed. Now to figure out the address. #
- What wait, I haven't updated in a long time. That's because life is pretty boring. LOL! #
- Very annoyed that people on the East Coast fail to realize that we don't all watch shows at the same time. Seriously people. #
- WOOHOOO Good Job Lakers! #
- Sometimes its hard not to be angry and feel sorry for myself. I don't understand why any of this is happening. #
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Yesterday’s Tweets
- Good Morning! Today is hopefully go to the gym day unless I have to see my lawyer. We'll see. #
- Okay cool I get to go to the gym today. So it's Bank then Gym then check on the cats then home. #
- Of the 5 times I saw Wicked, Adam Lambert played Fieryo in 4 of the performances. #
- Went to the bank, gym and got the mail. Now on to some lunch. Hotdogs and left over Pizza! #
- This process is far more complicated than I want it to be. Of course though when has life for us ever been easy though? #
- Watching Dancing with the Stars. Interesting. #
- U know things shouldn't be this way and I don't really understand why we have to go through this! But it is what it is, right? #
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Yesterday’s Tweets
- MIL is coming to stay with Brian for the summer to help him get better. Bringing her dog with her too. Why is this so complicated? #
- Anyone want to board two cats for me until I can bring them to where I am now? (about two months) #
- Picked veggies and strawberries at Underwood Farms! It was hot! #
- Want to know where my husband got his crazy from? His Mother. She's freaking insane. I'm done being nice to them. He made this choice. #
- Watching the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. #
- EARTHQUAKE!!!! 5.0 Inglewood. #
- Some pretty good aftershocks coming out of that quake. Haven't felt a thing out here though thank God. #
- Oh hey the Season Finale of Survivor and just in time for the stupidity of the last tribal counsel. LOL! #
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Yesterday’s Tweets
- Good Morning! Birthday Party Today! #
- Special Election on the 19th. Vote no on measures 1A-1F. #
- Home just in time for the NASCAR race. WOOHOO! #
- I'm rooting for Jeff Gordon tonight! GO JEFF!! #
- DALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! #nascar #
- Both Mom and I were screaming GO TONY! at the tv. This is how NASCAR races should be. #nascar #
- HAHAHHAHH! Kyle Busch finished out of the top ten. HAHAHHAHAHA!! #nascar #
- Everytime I read about the Christine Collins case I have to wonder why the LAPD would even think what they did was okay. So sad. #
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Yesterday’s Tweets
- I've never asked the same question over and over again. LOL! Seriously I just need the question answered. #
- Found out where Brian was transferred to and it's insanely far away so I guess he won't be getting his wallet and keys. He'll deal. #
- At the gym working out! #
- Back from the gym and pissed off. #
- Tonight is a mac & cheese night for Kaylee and me. #
- Heading to bed early tonight. #
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Yesterday’s Tweets
- Good morning! Kaylee is still sleeping. I have to wake her up. #
- Okay dinner is cooking in the crockpot for tonight. #
- Going to take pictures with Andrew now. #
- Got a hair trimmer for Kaylee. This one doesn't run on batteries so it should last longer. #
- Brian came early to see Kaylee so now she's down for a nap. Is there a pity plan for a new MacBookPro? LOL! I want one. #
- At the hospital! #
- I am fine, it's Brian. #
- Okay home now. Going to head to bed soon. Tomorrow gym time (hopefully). #
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Yesterday’s Tweets
- Good Morning Everyone! Going to check out Leap & Bound today. #
- Word of advice. Never rent from anyone dealing with Westcoast Property Management. They're bastards. #
- Back and midly angered by my situation. #
- Hmmm what's for dinner? TriTip? Yep. I'm making a good dinner tomorrow though. It will be yummy! #
- TriTip, rice, and oreo cookies! Can't get better. #
- So my allergies aren't as bad as they used to be but seriously my nose running is darn annoying. Might go to the beach tomorrow. #
- Tomorrow: Oil Change, Pictures, and maybe a beach trip. #
- Ever think "I wonder when this will happen cause its been a while?" Only to have it happen at a bad time? That was me today! LOL! #
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