The invention of text messaging has had some of the biggest
impact on our generation than any technological advance in the last twenty
years. Texting has made it easier to contact friends, send quick messages
without the obligation of a phone call and to harass and bully other
individuals. I think every teenager or twenty-something can recall a time where
a person texted them constantly either saying mean or inappropriate things or
just simply bothering them. In Donna St. George’s article, she examines what
happens when these harassing texts are not just annoying or uncomfortable, but
they are abusive.
St.
George discusses cases where young women have been killed by there abusive
boyfriends and only after this violence, are hundreds of harassing text
messages are found. This type of abusive is a largely psychological one because
of the controlling aspect of texts. If a boy sends a girl a text and she doesn’t
answer, usually he will wait around until she answers. In these abusive
situations, these men are sending text after text demanding to know where the
woman is, who she is with and proof of all of these things.
Textual
abusive is a huge issue because it is a largely private one. Most people don’t
share their texts to a significant other with anyone else, so if there is this kind
of controlling behavior, it is largely kept private. Also, a lot of young women
aren’t reading these controlling behaviors as warning signs, especially young,
high school girls who may be in a first-time relationship. Some women will
normalize this behavior by saying that their boyfriend is just worried, or that
he just wants her to be safe. But the truth is, relationships are about trust
and when this trust is impeded on through textual harassment, that relationship
becomes an abusive one.
I found this article really interesting because I never really considered how serious 'textual harassment' can be until my parents got divorced this summer. My dad would text my mom 24/7 harassing her about any little thing, and although she never answered, the texts didn't stop. It then trickled down to me and my sisters, so we all had to deal with the abuse via text. It definitely affected me - it was a huge distraction from school and it really stressed me out to constantly be receiving threats and harassing messages. It's important to teach women that they may not be getting directly harassed, like in person, but it is still harassment when someone constantly sends unwarranted messages via texting or online.
ReplyDeleteI can see how text messaging serves as a form of harassment in certain situations, but unfortunately, the harassment would still exist even if texting didn't. The cell phone, in general, offers an easy way for people to keep in constant communication with you. This can sometimes be a good thing, but not always. The invention of the cell phone, rather than just text messaging, introduced a way to harass people on the go. Textual harassment definitely exists and regrettably, it has transformed texting into a form of abuse.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your perspectives on this issue, Kaitlyn, Cassie, and Kirsten. I think you all point out how it can be hard to recognize behavior as abusive or violent when it's part of a normal interaction between people who know each other. What do you think is the solution to this issue? How can people better recognize textual harassment and be resilient to it?
ReplyDelete