Call Out Culture

[lewisnotmiller]

I'm reluctant to give them much blame.
They're seeing older folk doing the same.
Just look at the hyper-sensitive types here, getting all offended
over minor misunderstandings & mere differences of opinion.

You take that back!!!

 

[Revoltingest]

You take that back!!!

Not all staff are that way.

 

[David T]

I use Twitter quite often as my personal handle for professional networking and sharing learning resources. There is something I see a lot: call out culture. That is, when someone perceives something they believe is incorrect, they will not attempt to correct. They attempt to humiliate and embarrass. I found this example yesterday:

Spoiler: Language

Quite the gem, isn't she? See, Jack in this particular instance made a fairly thoughtful post. Basic empathy, for sure, but he isn't wrong and I didn't see a problem. Notice how Kim decides to spread his tweet and then proceed to taunt him. It takes a special kind of person to take a basic observation of empathy and then make fun of them for it.

Now, I have a second, more controversial (although it shouldn't be) observation. In my empirical experience the majority of call out posts are made by women calling out men. Justified? Maybe, maybe not. Let's take this example and reverse the participants and inverse the genders. Do you believe there would be 212,000 likes? 43,000 retweets? It gets worse! If you happen to waddle over to her account and take a peek at the discussion... people are openly supporting and encouraging this behavior.

For comparison, I made a reply to a post last month. The author made the claim that women in tech should be allowed raises based on the sole idea that they are owed due to the percieved pay gap. My reply was this: "I find it interesting that you seek additional compensation just because you are a woman. I prefer compensation be based on merit and growth." My account was suspended for 72 hours and I got enough hate mail to make Trump blush.

Welcome to 2018, eh?

This all is a monte python skit your fault for getting in the middle of it... Shame on you. Your experience on RF should equip you from such a thing!

 

[David T]

I'm reluctant to give them much blame.
They're seeing older folk doing the same.
Just look at the hyper-sensitive types here, getting all offended
over minor misunderstandings & mere differences of opinion.

I am totally offended by this post. I have no idea how you can be so mean and its titally wrong because i believe it to be wrong, i have science to prove it and the bible and my second cousin who has a phd in latin. So there.

Edit: i am leaving the typo in.

 

[Revoltingest]

I am totally offended by this post. I have no idea how you can be so mean and its titally wrong because i believe it to be wrong, i have science to prove it and the bible and my second cousin who has a phd in latin. So there.

You said "titally".

 

[David T]

You said "titally".

I edited it!!! Actually i said in the edit i am leaving it in!!!! Its probably a rules violation. I got one for posting a cloud!!!!! Which means i will post it all the time now!!!!!

 

[David T]

Apparently, there is some science on this. For one thing, it's mostly a Generation Z thing. Generation Z is 1996 to the present. But why them?

Some sociologists have suggested the cause might be two-fold. First, that Generation has been the most monitored and parentally coddled generation in history. Compared to all other generations, they were allowed less unsupervised time growing up than anyone. There was "always" an adult nearby in their lives. According to the scientists, this translated into their never having had to handle problems, disputes, crises (such as bullying) on their own. There was always an adult they could run to. Consequently, they have become the call-out culture -- with the crowd or mob now substituting for the adult of their childhood.

A second factor is that -- for some of them at least -- they gain status and prestige by calling out people for offenses against "protected groups". Protected groups are basically every group you can think of except white non-Hispanic males. Since the motive in calling people out is prestige -- rather than real offense or real justice -- there is very little motivation to consider or think about the effects calling someone out might have on the person who is called out.

In translation, that means they do not -- in their rush to score prestige -- think about such things as "does this person really deserve to be called out?" "Was their heart in the right place?" "Is it fair to characterize their behavior as horrible?" etc. etc. etc. They have no real empathy for the people they call out, nor do they see those folks points of view.

Any of that make sense to you, Quezal?

Yes definitely we were way more free from constant adult supervision. We wore lederhosen.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Not all staff are that way.

I choose to believe that means you think I'm luverly.

*Preens, content in his self delusion*

 

[Curious George]

I edited it!!! Actually i said in the edit i am leaving it in!!!! Its probably a rules violation. I got one for posting a cloud!!!!! Which means i will post it all the time now!!!!! View attachment 25357

That vexes me. This is clearly a picture of a portal to the lower 4th dimension.

 

[David T]

That vexes me. This is clearly a picture of a portal to the lower 4th dimension.

Oh yeeeeees!!!! And we tell the young lads be careful...

 

[Sunstone]

If it is a mostly Generation Z thing, that explains why this is utterly foreign to me. Then again, I also avoid social media like the plague. Come to think of it, being on the receiving end of garbage like this - albeit in a different context and platform - is why I swore off participating in social media at all originally. I still swear it off for that reason in part, but also because I saw the writing on the wall in terms of exploitation by commercial interests. Now it's being exploited by political interests too, and any desire I had to sign up for such accounts has gone with the wind.

The Generation Z thing is kind of relative. For the past 40 years, there has been a movement of sorts in the US towards ever increasing adult supervision of children. So it's not like Generation Z's behavior is unprecedented. You see a bit of it in earlier generations. But what the sociologists are arguing is that Generation Z stands out for it.

Now to get all precise, the sociology I've been hearing about says that only about 5% of Generation Z is really bad about this stuff. But that 5% is large enough, and active enough, to intimidate the rest of the generation, silence them. So it gives the appearance than the whole generation is going along with its most radical members.

 

[Cooky]

It's sad, but I think there is no fixing it without help from our leaders. When people see something that they disagree with but cannot argue against logically, they turn to insults instead of conceding. It has always been a problem, but with the way our leaders on both sides of the aisle behave, we don't have any examples of how to avoid this.

That's a strange thought -that people would look to politicians as social role models... Personally, that would be the last place I would look to for such guidance.

 

[Stevicus]

I use Twitter quite often as my personal handle for professional networking and sharing learning resources. There is something I see a lot: call out culture. That is, when someone perceives something they believe is incorrect, they will not attempt to correct. They attempt to humiliate and embarrass. I found this example yesterday:

Spoiler: Language

Quite the gem, isn't she? See, Jack in this particular instance made a fairly thoughtful post. Basic empathy, for sure, but he isn't wrong and I didn't see a problem. Notice how Kim decides to spread his tweet and then proceed to taunt him. It takes a special kind of person to take a basic observation of empathy and then make fun of them for it.

Now, I have a second, more controversial (although it shouldn't be) observation. In my empirical experience the majority of call out posts are made by women calling out men. Justified? Maybe, maybe not. Let's take this example and reverse the participants and inverse the genders. Do you believe there would be 212,000 likes? 43,000 retweets? It gets worse! If you happen to waddle over to her account and take a peek at the discussion... people are openly supporting and encouraging this behavior.

For comparison, I made a reply to a post last month. The author made the claim that women in tech should be allowed raises based on the sole idea that they are owed due to the percieved pay gap. My reply was this: "I find it interesting that you seek additional compensation just because you are a woman. I prefer compensation be based on merit and growth." My account was suspended for 72 hours and I got enough hate mail to make Trump blush.

Welcome to 2018, eh?

I've been noticing this stuff for a long time now. I generally tend to not give it much credence, because it's just people disingenuously making drama just for the sake of drama. I rarely go on Twitter and similar sites for that reason. The tactics of scorn and ridicule never impressed me much.

Whenever faced with the kind of personality type you're describing here, I think back to a time when I was in fourth grade when I was eating lunch one day. I was eating my delicious Snack Pack chocolate pudding, when some kid next to me said "Ewwww! You're eating diarrhea!" I explained to him, "No, this is not diarrhea, this is chocolate pudding, as it clearly says here..." And he countered "It was chocolate pudding until you touched it. Now it's diarrhea." I think he even enlisted one or two others to join in, and all I could think was, "What are these people, insane?" I felt like flinging a spoonful of pudding at them, but I didn't want to waste a single drop of it. Besides, they'd go running to the teacher and I'd end up looking like some kind of troublemaker.

I think this describes at least half to three-quarters of the people I encounter on the internet. I don't let anyone ruin my enjoyment of my delicious, creamy, thick and rich chocolate pudding. No matter what anyone says about it, don't believe them for a second.