This was a difficult thing for me to research because I am a sensitive soul and found some of the clips available on the internet to be quite disturbing. I guess it is something that people want to see, but I don't know why... I guess human nature is twisted.
For those of you that don't know, happy slapping is when someone picks a target at random and attacks them while a friend video tapes it. These videos are distributed via internet and cell phones. Cell phones are the main instruments used for recording and distributing these actions and, thanks to the internet, it has become a problem in many countries around the world. I find it terrible that cell phones are being used for such destructive purposes, but it is because they are so portable and convenient, with many modern phones having excellent video quality.
A few months ago Carte Blanche ran an article on the problem and many people, particluarly parents and teachers, consider this to be a major contributor to bullying and violence in schools. It just shows the negative impact visual media and participation in the production of visual media can have on society. If these youngsters (it is mostly young people involved) think that it is ok to be violent then I fear for their future - I am guessing it will propably involve a lot of heartache and trauma.. ..and probably jail.
There is a lack of accountability in these cases and so people feel that they can get away with it. If you can get away with it then why not do it? Getting into trouble is what keeps the average person well behaved. We have a sense of consequences, but being distanced from the action relieves these feelings. A good thing is that if the perpetrators are traced then there is fairly concrete, indesputable evidence against them and this has lead to prosecutions and jail sentences.
Police have in some circumstances used cell phone video and photos to track people involved in crimes, such as riots, and they provide important evidence in court. Another positive thing about these films in that they provide multiple viewpoints in situations and can provide coverage of incidents when news institutions have not yet reached the scene.
I was going to put a link to some happy slapping sites, but I realised that all I would be doing is adding to the problem. People do these things because there is a demand for it. Instead I put up some YouTube videos (bottom of the page) of Anti-slapping! This movement encourages random acts of kindness. I think that this is a great idea because, just as happy slapping is said to encourage violence and bullying, I believe that this encourages caring and brotherly love! If you want to see more anti-slapping videos then visit http://www.anti-slapping.net/ for some really good ones.
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3 comments:
I now know that what I usually find as funny on someone's phone is actually something that really happened and here I am enjoying it as a joke.It is true that if violence is deemed acceptable now we ought to fear for the future of these children.It is a shame that such good technology gets to be used for such vile acts but also we should not overlook the fact that this new cellphone technology has a lot of good uses such as helping the police trace people who are lost and provide substantial and credible evidence against perpetrators of crime. This video technology can also be used by people who are serious about starting a career in film but cannot afford the proper technology, and by using their phone camera shoot a short film and post it onto yotube. It's a good tool for experience. And I hope people would use it for what it was initially intended for, friends, family and life!
people out there have a trully strange sense of humour. i find it amazing that pain has actually become a source of entertainment...a form of making someone elses day at the expense of someones humiliation. but we have to take into consideration the fact that people do actually find the weiderst things to be funny. the real problem begins when these things are shared outside the context of that group which initially found those events to be funny in the first place.people entertain this kind of behaviour even though they themselves wouldnt be caught engaging in these activities.once there is an approving audience (even if they approve on a subconscious level) thats when even the most innocent of games get out of hand.people make it seem as though its a crime to disapprove of certain events but thats perfectly normal...maybe if more people evaluated what they deem humourous we wouldnt have to worry so much about happy slapping.
I first heard about happy slapping in England when I was living there a few years ago, and would never have thought it would come to this country!
Scary to think how cell phones may be increasing violence in a round-about sort of way, because people mainly only attack the victim in order to get footage of it.
Come to think of it, cell phones also cause their carriers to be potential victims of theft.
Would be interesting to get some figures on how the introduction of cellphones has actually increased acts of violence in this country, as well as the world. Unfortunately I think they would be pretty impossible to determine though.
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