Hiding Behind Social Media

I, like many Australians, was thrilled when Cadel Evans won the recent 2011 Tour de France, becoming the first Aussie ever to do so. This event was covered by TV news reports, newspapers, websites and blogs as well as on facebook pages and twitter accounts, and the majority of the reports or posts labelled Evans a 'hero'. Many people would agree with this notion, but one public figure did not. Mia Freedman, an ex-magazine editor and current social media commentator who also runs her own website, publicly disagreed with this idea and unwittingly placed herself in a social media storm.

She appeared on her usual Monday morning segment on The Today Show on Channel Nine following Evans' victory and expressed her opinion that she did not understand the level of media coverage given in Australia to sportspeople and their triumphs. She qualified this by saying that people who achieve great things in other professions, for example doctors, social workers or fire fighters, are barely recognised by the media and rarely lauded as heros. She claimed not to understand the hysteria and feeling of pride amongst Australians following Evans' victory and, without taking anything away from his achievement, believed that more attention should be paid to these 'unsung heros'. You can see the segment here: 





I am not writing this blog so that I can weigh in on the argument. What I wanted to highlight was the extreme and vicious way in which Freedman has been attacked via social media sites following her appearance on The Today Show.  In this blog she discusses the horrible names she was called and that the abuse she copped was mainly through social media sites such as facebook and twitter, as well as through her website. So much so that her website editing team had to delete many posts because they were just so offensive.

Whilst it is abundently clear that many Australians are incredibly passionate about the sporting culture that is so ingrained within this country and that this topic will therefore always be a contentious one, I would argue that Freedman's 'crime' was not at all deserving of the punishment she received from faceless people via social media sites. Yes, she works in the media, uses these sites and thus needs to be open to negative criticism. She acknowledges this in her posts. However I feel that the people that use facebook and twitter et al in this way are simply cowards who hide behind social media and are not using it appropriately or in a remotely constructive way. Yes, everyone is allowed to have their own opinion and voice it, but at what cost? This was essentially a case of Cyber Bullying.    

I'm not sure what the answer is. All I know is that, despite the fact I disagree with Freedman's opinion, I don't think anyone deserves to be treated in this manner.

I would love to hear what you all think regarding this emotive topic.