So the news is atwitter with how a couple of inappropriate jokes at a tech conference has lead to two firings among other nonsense. If you don't want to read it here's the breakdown:
- 2 dudes are having fun at Pycon
- 2 dudes forget that they aren't alone nor are they above reproach
- 2 dudes make inappropriate jokes related to forking and dongles (that's what she said)
- lady sitting in front of dudes get's offended
- lady takes pic of inappropriate dudes and shares it to twitter
- lady has a lot of twitter followers
- 1 dude get's fired, lady receives death-threat and her company gets DDoS and also she gets fired
So what's really going on here. This is a perfect example of how social media is crippling our communications skills and allowing us to forget that we are interpersonal beings. Take a look at your average social stream. What you see is a metric ton of complaints and threats and pointless drab that the sharers wouldn't ever share out loud with the people in the room with them. But thanks to the anonymity of the internet they've been empowered to speak up without saying anything or facing any consequences.
What's that got to do with this little blurb? The point I want to make is that social media has allowed this lady to forget that she's a human being. I have to wonder if it crossed her mind that she could actually turn around and 'talk' to these jerks? Let's face it, the guys should have been a little more aware of being in mixed company and kept the locker room talk where it belongs.
The backlash over all of this isn't caused by some guy making a dirty joke, if that's the case I know a lot of people that couldn't keep their jobs and I number among them. The issue here is how somehow social media allows us as human beings to forget that there are consequences to everything we say, and empowers us to not even interact with each other in a civil manner.
Had Ms. Twitterholic taken the time to actually engage these guys in a conversation and express how their behavior was offensive then she would still have her job and a lot less headache than she's dealing with today.
So unplug, have a conversation, and for goodness sake remember that everything you say and do has consequences.
Les
