Just a quick comment on the above article by Mark Guarino. By now most of us have heard about the alleged case of rape in Ohio. “[T]wo high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio, are charged with raping a 16-year-old girl at two separate parties in August,” writes Guarino. In this comment, I don’t want to focus on the case itself so much as an emerging back story—the role social media is playing in cases such as this one.
“Today investigators are trained to immediately seek out any digital evidence left behind on phones, tablets, and personal computers,” writes Guarino, quoting law professor Lisa Smith at Brooklyn Law School who specializes in domestic violence cases, “and attorneys are now prepared to argue cases based on the interpretation of those messages and images.” Ms. Smith continues her thought thus: “What can be recovered can be conversations related to the planning of the crime, the post-discussion of the crime, or video or photo evidence of the crime itself.”
A question that immediately pops to mind (at least my mind) is, “How is it that criminals can leave behind such damning evidence?” Here’s how Guarino answers this question:
Why this is an emerging trend has to do with the relative age of those involved: usually those of the Millennial generation or younger who have grown up with digital media and are conditioned to record and transmit most aspects of their lives – even if those details are criminal.
And I would say that Guarino is not too far off the mark when he suggests that kids today are being “conditioned,” as in operant conditioning—conditioned to behave in a certain way without thinking about or reflecting on such behavior. Consider these closing remarks by Smith (as reported by Guarino):
In almost every case I’ve seen in the last year involving young people, there’s been some kind of documentation of the incident. This is what they do all day long and it doesn’t make any difference with [respect to] the substance of [what] they’re documenting. There is no thought process. You have to think of it as automatic, regardless of what they document, [as automatic] as it is to breathe. There is no judgment.
In part 13 of my summary of William Powers’ book Hamlet’s Blackberry, I make the following observation:
Technology is a wonderful thing when it helps with the expression of self as part of an EF [executive function] process; it’s a terrible thing when it dampens or deadens the EF process and, in turn, one’s self.
What the article here describes is an EF process that has been largely shut down. There is no thought process. There is no reflection. There is no filtering. There is no valuing—good or bad. Simply, there is no moral process. We’re looking at automatons mechanically recording and reporting. Such automaton-like conditioned behavior may ultimately prove to be a boon for the justice system—eyes and ears everywhere recording and reporting on every movement—but I also think it portends the arrival of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, or even George Orwell’s 1984.
As a final comment, I’d be remiss if I did not mention that the above reminds me of what psychology students learn about in their Introduction to Psychology class: the bystander phenomenon. Here’s how Wikipedia defines this phenomenon:
The bystander effect or “Genovese syndrome” is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases where individuals do not offer any means of help in an emergency situation to the victim when other people are present. The probability of help has often appeared to be inversely related to the number of bystanders; in other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help. The mere presence of other bystanders greatly decreases intervention. In general, this is believed to happen because as the number of bystanders increases, any given bystander is less likely to notice the situation, interpret the incident as a problem, and less likely to assume responsibility for taking action.
Are our smartphones and social media turning us into a bunch of bystanders? Do we carry a large group of bystanders in our hamd when we carry a smartphone or tablet with a direct link to Twitter and Facebook? I think these are questions worth considering.
By the way, the Genovese syndrome is named for Kitty Genovese who was brutally murdered in 1964 as a group of bystanders just stood around, watched, and ignored her pleas for help. Today, bystanders watch, record, and post. A boon for the justice system? Perhaps. But, in my opinion, small consolation for victims and their families.
How do we break out out of this pattern of social media conditioning? Can we break out of this pattern of social media conditioning? If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please leave a comment.
COMMENT: Ohio rape case: Evidence on social media creates new world for justice system – Yahoo! News
Ohio rape case: Evidence on social media creates new world for justice system – Yahoo! News.
By Mark Guarino | Christian Science Monitor
Just a quick comment on the above article by Mark Guarino. By now most of us have heard about the alleged case of rape in Ohio. “[T]wo high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio, are charged with raping a 16-year-old girl at two separate parties in August,” writes Guarino. In this comment, I don’t want to focus on the case itself so much as an emerging back story—the role social media is playing in cases such as this one.
“Today investigators are trained to immediately seek out any digital evidence left behind on phones, tablets, and personal computers,” writes Guarino, quoting law professor Lisa Smith at Brooklyn Law School who specializes in domestic violence cases, “and attorneys are now prepared to argue cases based on the interpretation of those messages and images.” Ms. Smith continues her thought thus: “What can be recovered can be conversations related to the planning of the crime, the post-discussion of the crime, or video or photo evidence of the crime itself.”
A question that immediately pops to mind (at least my mind) is, “How is it that criminals can leave behind such damning evidence?” Here’s how Guarino answers this question:
And I would say that Guarino is not too far off the mark when he suggests that kids today are being “conditioned,” as in operant conditioning—conditioned to behave in a certain way without thinking about or reflecting on such behavior. Consider these closing remarks by Smith (as reported by Guarino):
In part 13 of my summary of William Powers’ book Hamlet’s Blackberry, I make the following observation:
What the article here describes is an EF process that has been largely shut down. There is no thought process. There is no reflection. There is no filtering. There is no valuing—good or bad. Simply, there is no moral process. We’re looking at automatons mechanically recording and reporting. Such automaton-like conditioned behavior may ultimately prove to be a boon for the justice system—eyes and ears everywhere recording and reporting on every movement—but I also think it portends the arrival of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, or even George Orwell’s 1984.
As a final comment, I’d be remiss if I did not mention that the above reminds me of what psychology students learn about in their Introduction to Psychology class: the bystander phenomenon. Here’s how Wikipedia defines this phenomenon:
Are our smartphones and social media turning us into a bunch of bystanders? Do we carry a large group of bystanders in our hamd when we carry a smartphone or tablet with a direct link to Twitter and Facebook? I think these are questions worth considering.
By the way, the Genovese syndrome is named for Kitty Genovese who was brutally murdered in 1964 as a group of bystanders just stood around, watched, and ignored her pleas for help. Today, bystanders watch, record, and post. A boon for the justice system? Perhaps. But, in my opinion, small consolation for victims and their families.
How do we break out out of this pattern of social media conditioning? Can we break out of this pattern of social media conditioning? If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please leave a comment.