{"id":837,"date":"2020-02-14T12:54:13","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T09:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/?p=837"},"modified":"2022-10-13T16:10:48","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T13:10:48","slug":"memes-privilege-and-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/2020\/02\/14\/memes-privilege-and-responsibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Memes, Privilege, and Responsibility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Franseska Lahdenranta<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This blog post was produced as part of the course \u201cSocial Media, Ideologies, and Ethics in the United States\u201d at the University of Turku.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image: pexels.com\/photo\/white-smartphone-1851415\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, a group of kids who got\naccepted to Harvard formed a group chat for sending memes. And then another chat\nfor sending offensive memes. And then one more, for really <\/em>offensive memes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was covered in NPR\u2019s podcast \u201cHidden\nBrain\u201d where the host Shankar Vedantam explores topics relating to psychology\nand human behavior. He interviewed one of the students, \u201cWilliam,\u201d and\nuncovered his story in a slow, detailed, and dramatized way that seemed to\nfocus on defending the kids\u2019 need to bond over graphic images and racial slurs.\nThe group chats were formed in order for the students to get to know each other\nand bond. Supposedly, the more offensive the meme, the more popular the sender.\nWould you give in to peer pressure like that? What would you think were the\nconsequences, if there should be any?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forbes<\/em> describes the incident in their article published on June\n5th, 2017: \u201cThe Holocaust, child abuse, sexual assault, as well as posts that\ndenigrated minority groups, were all fair game in the meme-focused private group\nchat at one point called \u2018Harvard Memes For Horny Bourgeois Teens.\u2019\u201d The shared\ncontent led to Harvard deciding to rescind admissions to 10 students, including\n\u201cWilliam.\u201d After students are accepted to the prestigious university, Harvard\nstill reserves the right to cancel admission if the students\u2019 moral character\nor honesty is called into question.  Of\ncourse, the matter has been debated, with some people defending the students\u2019 right\nto discuss whatever topic they choose based on the right to free speech and\nfreedom of expression provided by the First Amendment of the U.S Bill of Rights.\nOthers consider expelling students or not admitting them to prestigious schools\nto be the right thing to do in a case like this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at this case in the light of\nethics on social media, I think an important aspect relating to these problems\nwith memes is acknowledging one\u2019s privilege when handling sensitive topics or\nmatters that are unfamiliar. Students who are admitted to Harvard are\nprivileged and should respect their status, accomplishments, and other people\nenough to realize what kind of material it is acceptable to share. People need\nto realize their privilege and take responsibility for the actions that they\ntake, whether in social media, traditional legacy media, or face-to-face interactions\nwith other people. One tool for this is to educate people on media literacy,\ndiversity in media, and on how to take action when offensive or problematic\nmaterial is shared on social media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnline Behavior, Real-Life Consequences: The Unfolding of a\nSocial Media Scandal,\u201d NPR, September 9, 2019: https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2019\/09\/06\/758281834\/you-cant-hit-unsend-how-a-social-media-scandal-unfolded-at-harvard?t=1579814938189<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHarvard Rescinds Admissions to 10 Students for Offensive\nFacebook Memes,\u201d Forbes<\/em>, June 5,\n2017: https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/rebeccaheilweil1\/2017\/06\/05\/harvard-rescinds-10-admissions-offer-for-offensive-facebook-memes-ollowing-commencement-speaker-zuckerberg\/#554a44e03dbd<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Franseska Lahdenranta This blog post was produced as part of the course \u201cSocial Media, Ideologies, and Ethics in the United States\u201d at the University of Turku. In 2017, a group of kids who got accepted to Harvard formed a group chat for sending memes. And then another chat for sending offensive memes. And then one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19734,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-students-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19734"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":843,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions\/843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}