“Why are you taking so long to answer?”
Online assault and violence
When we engage in dialogues under digital environments we find two types of behavior: argumentative verbal behavior and aggressive verbal behavior. The first seeks to attack the interlocutor’s position, his arguments, opinions, and his truth.
On the other hand, aggressive verbal behavior is characterized by a malicious intention to victimize and damage the image of the counterpart, diverting the focus of attention from their position or their ideas.
Below we will describe some of the most frequent displays of hostility while using Social Networks and online socialization apps:
Discrimination
It consists of any type or act of segregation and stigmatization that may be degrading or hurtful against a person’s physical appearance: their age, sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic level, etc.
Example: “Sorry, fat people are disgusting to me”
Value judgements
They are actions caused by intolerance, in which another person is devalued or denigrated through negative judgment calls, in a sarcastic, ironic, vulgar or hurtful way.
Example: “I’m surprised you don’t write with misspellings”
Remember that destructive criticism tells more about the person who criticizes, than about the person object of it.
Generalization
They are all those preconceptions, prejudices and clichés (social, religious or behavioral) that revolve around some topic and that can directly affect the development of the socio-emotional climate of an online conversation and interaction.
Example: “I think that religious people are not legit people“
The truth is that each person is a universe to discover and it is not positive to generalize because it could be offensive.
Excessive demands
It consists of waiting for a certain response, action or behavior from the other person and then reacting violently or aggressively if what is expected is not obtained, since there is a wrong idea about an alleged obligation or a commitment about said response.
If we get a match and you don’t text me, then I’ll delete you!
Excessive demands occur when no clear agreements or limits are previously established between the parties.
If you identified yourself with any of these scenarios, the important thing is to remember that although violence is inevitable, we can always decide whether to react or not, or with whom to follow the conversation, because not all users act in the same way.
The truth is that in addition to creating strategies for the prevention of digital violence, we must strengthen a culture in Digital Citizenship that seeks to educate in values to teach us about how to manage our online connections in a healthy, assertive and non-violent way.
Please, share!
