The E-Book Essay II

The realm of online sociability, we must acknowledge, is not the fully realized "dream of an interconnected world" that Pinto at the Voice, and by inferred perspective, Zuckerberg imagine (or once imagined) exists online. The ugly truth of the matter can be found in any of the recent documentation of cyberbullying found in the 'Am I Pretty' videos on the Huffington Post site. Discussion has emerged around the film Hirsch directed and Weinstein produced that was entitled, Bully to further this topic. This isn't the first time I've heard of a film being rated as more obscene in the hopes of vetting out potential people who could watch the film, thus causing the filmmakers to lose money, and creating a snub in their gesture.

After some time, Hirsch and Weinstein managed to release the film with a slightly lower rating than originally anticipated. The fear is that this is another type of bullying. Bullying has been well-papered in the e-papers this week. Consider, for example, the case of the treatment of Lana Del Rey (a Weinstein affiliate). I know there are other musici who launch their careers amidst considerable critique, but news of her struggle has been particularly wrenching, not to mention specifically critiqued within the industry.

Moreover, the cast of The Jersey Shore (mostly Snooki and Vinny) acknowledged a considerable amount of cyberbullying by starting a campaign called A Thin Line. This campaign attempts to caution all evolved users of technology to indeed evolve. On their show's blog, there are also reports of Vinny Guadagnino being cyberbullied and becoming involved with the movement to prevent negative Tweets. While not serious here or there, you have to imagine that receiving a mass bulk of negatives right after the state of New Jersey cut the tax credit to film the show would be taxing, indeed.

At least, one year later, the talk about bullying seems to reveal that everyone, everywhere has experienced some type of negative social experience. But, these are, after all, celebrities who do exist within a certain type of media vacuum. The experience these individuals have is one akin to massive exposure to a scrutinizing public. Still, the issue of peer-critique can be painful on any basis, if you consider the Huff Post documentation on this subject. The most recent series of articles on this subject arose on the topic of ordinary, anonymous girls who took to their webcams to, apparently, amass a sea of haters. However, it should be noticed that they also received some concerned commentary by the minority.

The Huff Post article, "'Am I Pretty' YouTube Phenomenon Raises Red Flags" piece, emerged in print approximately one day ago. The writer brought up the phenomenon that I have seen circulated, but never thought to comment upon. The first gesture that these young adults are making towards their internet social identity, is by asking an anonymous and frequently hostile space, "Am I pretty?" In most cases, it sounds like they don't know because they are receiving conflicting peer commentary. Most are being bullied in their school environments and receiving different messages at home. Moreover, they are getting a warped sense of perception that comes from the external rather than the internal.

I noticed that, in terms of identity formulation, this was a disappointing contribution to the incessant ranking of physical attraction as the number one criterion of self-worth. Since the airing of that article, another appeared on the topic of Sophia Roessler, a multi-media artist who mimed the videos as part of a woman's studies project for research. Not all of the videos circulated in this batch might have been related to the original videos.

All of these news about bullying are coupled with the news in Congress of the troubles surrounding the passing of a simple, anti-bullying law. The type of news coverage this has generated seems to suggest that Congress functions among these same, strained social relations that negate a cohesive society. No wonder there's gridlock if Congress cannot resolve its own social conflicts, not to mention internal conflicts within bipartisan sects. The result of this stubbornness is that nothing gets done to help those who need the protection of the federal law when social communities generate high schools of interconnected peers and parents who were once peers. Teachers are not exempt from condoning bullying, which is why these fractured relations need to be addressed by federal laws.

Young people need a Congress that is not staffed with adults like Newt Gingrich. Recently, he decried against someone speaking out a hearing because he called Sandra Fluke "a slut." who goes around telling staff members that individuals are unqualified to speak as witnesses because they are assumed to be "sluts" because they are addressing women's reproductive health. There needs to be logical, sane individuals who don't resort to their constructions of gender, class-related or religious beliefs when confronted with opposing opinions. How do these people attempt to regulate bullying when the attitudes they are socially conditioned to possess are the ones that actually generate bullying? In these and all other conditions, there needs to a neutral Congress that doesn't mirror the same patterns of bullying that they are supposed to be eradicating.

Therefore, the social bullying that happens on Facebook is not the fault of Zuckerberg who composing an online environment that perpetuates the existing social conditions caused by the clefts in the schools. It is a material element rather than a social action: a host rather than an active participant. Facebook is further related to this media in the discussion of the e-book, not so much the politics that shape the genesis of the site. These will be further examined in the next section of this essay as it is necessary to contextualize the N+1 issue of "Machine Politics."