A high school teacher, Natalie Munroe, got suspended for ranting about her students in her blog. Munroe expressed her discontempt with the school system, parental guidance and student attitude in considerably harsh and offensive terms.
Despite the hurtfulness of her words on an online medium, those on her side argue that she is free to express herself. Shouldn't social media allow people to voice their thoughts and opinions? Well, not everyone agrees that people should.
One of the girls interviewed by NBC said that what the teacher described was most likely true, but said that she should not have put that up online where everyone could see it.
Thus, how far do social media really allow people to be free to express themselves?
The first amendment protects Americans only so far as it lays several limitations. People are already not allowed to share certain ideas, but without the internet, people get away with venting their concerns as those around do not usually act upon penalizing them for saying something inappropriate.
Online, these words are documented and can be traced back to the author. Posts on Twitter, Facebook and obviously Blogs are monitored and hold people accountable for their opinions.
Only because Munroe shed the school, parents and students in an unflattering light, does not necessarily mean she should be punished. She used an external medium to express herself and, to my knowledge, did not infringe any of the limitations in the first amendment. Yet, she was suspended and responded to her actions on national television.
Do the media really give people more freedom? Or do they just control better what people are saying?
Whether Munroe was right or wrong to publish such comments, I believe stories like hers make people fearful of sharing their true feelings and therefore limits or tailors their true opinions. This defeats the purpose of having social media give voice to small individuals as these become silenced by fear.
1 comment:
Isa, this is an intriguing case and your treatment of it is very thoughtful. Everyone needs to be able to vent about the frustrations of their job, but venting in a public forum is maybe not the wisest thing to do. One thing that's interesting is that it didn't mention whether she posted under her name and identified the school she was referring to or not. I think that would make a difference. Anyway, the ubiquity of social media makes it very difficult for public figures to have a personal vs. professional online life--it seems that they are always "on duty."
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