The Two-edged Sword

I was idling through my Facebook feed--literally JUST NOW--when I came across this article.  It was advertized as an inspirational article, but when I read it I found out it had a lot to do with our class.  The use of social media has very much a two-edged sword dimension about it, as this article illustrates: it can condemn as well as be a useful tool.

The article goes into full detail about the incident, but to summarize, three hundred teenagers broke into ex-NFL player Brian Holloway's house in New York and partied.  They might have gotten away with it, except they started posting pictures and status updates on social media.  Brian Holloway, all the way from Florida, saw the events unfolding over the internet, started a website to identify the culprits, and then he invited them to come over to his house to help clean up.

Now, the next part of this story is really stupid: the parents of these teenagers decided to sue Holloway for "ruining their kids lives" and making them take responsibility for their actions.  Someone smarter-than-your-average-bear wrote a letter to these parents. This line is the killer:

"Instead of dragging your kids back to apologize and clean up the mess, you lashed out at Brian Holloway, threatened to firebomb his house, and are now planning to sue him. For what? For identifying your kids online. Well guess what? Your little Johnny did that himself the minute he tweeted that iPhone photo standing on the dining room table, holding a red solo cup filled with beer."

One of the writer's accusations toward these parents is that among other luxuries we have given the younger generation, we have given them smartphones--implying that parents did so without telling them how to use them responsibly.  Not only do stupid teenagers think they can get away with irresponsible behavior, they think they can STILL get away with it AND brag about their exploits on the internet. In their defense, they were all drunk and they were posting for the benefit of their friends. It's sickening to think that their parents would have seen those posts and not done anything about it except try to cover the sins of their offspring.

But on the other hand, thanks to social media, the owner of the house was able to identify the culprits.  And, putting the internet to use for good, he reached out to those teens and offered them a chance at forgiveness--which, the letter also says, only one grateful leper accepted.  As the author of the letter points out, Holloway had every right to have them arrested and charged for their vandalism, but he did not.

So the internet can be used both for constructive and destructive purposes.  I think it goes to demonstrate the point that I commented about on Shelley's post:  adolescents, prone to risk-taking and impulsive behavior, won't know how to use the internet responsibly and can very easily get in trouble.  However, people who are mature and know how to use the internet properly will do so in ways that can build others.

Random tangent: my thoughts on social media on this vein remind me of Iron Man's suit.  In the second Iron Man film we see it constantly being labeled as a WEAPON.  The Iron Man suit is indeed a weapon, but in The Avengers we see that it's advanced technology can also be used for constructive purposes: it is also a TOOL.

Likewise, social media can be used to damage an individual's reputation--including one's own--and it can also be used to build people spiritually and emotionally.  The Church makes such good use of the internet because it recognizes both sides of social media and wants to be an influence for good in counterbalance to the evil which is so easily found online.