A big story going around right now is the tragic case of Tyler Clementi who leap to his death after an intimate moment of his was recorded and broadcasted by his roommate and another girl. From this many questions have arisen. The two are being charged with invasion of privacy and prosecutors are pushing towards calling it a hate crime. But the aspect of the case I am interested in is how the internet and recent technology comes in to play and how is alters or doesn’t alter what we deem as morally appropriate. Myself and many others with argue that a person’s morality is cannot actually be altered by the fact that certain technologies exist, that these two kids were cruel and of outrageously poor judgment which unfortunately caused the abrupt end to beautiful life. But what can also be speculated upon is how accessibility to endless technologies may increase the likelihood of these things happening. Just like anything we take the good with the bad. We started making movies and television and we started seeing an increase in violence for example. We internalize it, and it therefore dehumanizes us. Although we all make the conscious choice to watch people’s heads being sawed off slowly, blood and gore everywhere, there is no doubt in my mind that our subconscious yields the consequences of that type of exposure.
So how does this relate to the internet and Tyler Clemente?
I do believe strongly that our morality, every aspect of our culture, beliefs, lifestyle, values, family; religion is conditioned by the external environments into which we are born. With the internet and social networks, we open up doors into our personal lives that we may not have otherwise chosen to expose. But the means is there so we do. And with that condition, lack of importance upon privacy and blurred boundary lines, a younger generation may not understand those boundaries in the same way which we have been brought up to understand them.
If you can catch my drift, in no way do I excuse the actions of the two twits that performed the deed which led a boy to his death, but I want to use them as an example to warn the world of the problems we may face with the coming generations. Our little sisters, our children and their children are being directly born into a society completely and irrevocably emerged in social technologies. It is changing EVEYTHING about the way we live and the things which we value.
Some people like me and you recognize this colossal change as it is happening, but the masses will doubtlessly conform.
A professor of mine introduced an amazing point while we were discussing a recent campaign launched by T-Mobile. The cell provider is now offering KIDS FREE on their family plans. The commercials depict children about the age of ten
"According to a study published in April 2010 by the Pew Research Center, 75 percent of children ages 12 to 17 now have a cell phone."
http://forums.t-mobile.com/t5/Families/T-Mobile-s-Kids-Are-Free-Promotion-Will-Keep-Families-Connected/td-p/466292
This is extremely smart on their part, right now the children in the family account for a higher percent of the household consumer decisions than ever before! But this brings up certain issues:
At what point would we regulate ones access to certain technologies? In comparison to a fork or even a hand saw (as my professor put it,) you would place one of those items in a child’s hand only after they have been taught properly how to use it. I am sure if a neighbor saw a ten year old waving around a saw recklessly they would call DCF. But who regulates a child’s use of one of the most powerful tools we have today, a cell phone?
How do we factor into our lessons when teaching our young how to balance their personal lives and everything that is now made to be public. How do we create a code of moral ethics for them?
With this new unrestricted access to the greater evils of the world, how do we ensure that parents are doing their parts, and how do we ensure that our work ethics, moral ethics family ethics will survive?
It is something to think about as we mourn the life of a boy that was destroyed through the lack of care that was taken with such an influential and powerful force. The internet.
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