Comments on: It Isn’t Always Just Marketing and PR

By: Web marketing | mascali.net - idee, parole, pensieri.

Web marketing | mascali.net - idee, parole, pensieri. — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 07:50:08 +0000

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By: PurplePeopleEater

PurplePeopleEater — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:40:38 +0000

I don’t think anyone is blaming craigslist or youtube for this occurring – they’re certainly not responsible for these girls wanting to solicit themselves in the first place, and you’re right: blaming them would just be illogical. But if you know that your social media site is being used for this purpose, and you have the capability to control how it is used, would you not look at stopping it? I’m pretty sure that the creators of these sites did not come up with their concept with this type of use in mind, and I doubt it’s a desired development.

Something like this, and the “Craigslist Murderer”, just opens up discussion on the broader topic of the regulation of social media and its associated questions and concerns. And isn’t that a Pandora’s Box.

By: Danny

Danny — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:24:37 +0000

Nobody’s really blaming the tools, Ari – merely saying they do make it easier.

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:21:27 +0000

In college in the mid-1990s, I routinely drove from campus to downtown along a backroad because it lacked stop lights. That street and its perpendicular side roads were known as the city’s red light district until the cops arrested the johns and the women and tried making right out of wrong.

Would it surprise you I saw 1-2 girls per street corner? Majoring in sociology, this fascinated me and I occasionally chatted with some of these women, wondering why they did what they did and getting a pretty good idea of what they were making each night. Again, this was mid-90s.

Social media was not coined until ten years later; and marketing and PR played no role either in why they ran tricks. They did it for money–pure and simple. The same motivation as today. Their parenting and family life may not be great, either. Maybe their father or stepfather molested them. Who knows.

Fact is, I don’t know the solution but to blame craigslist and youtube is plain silly.

By: PurplePeopleEater

PurplePeopleEater — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:38:48 +0000

I can definitely understand that concern. Something intended to regulate the way people use social media in order to prevent solicitation could easily become distorted and end up censoring things we don’t wish to be censored.

I think the best thing that can happen to start is that these sites regulate themselves and remove these advertisements as soon as their discovered. It may not abolish or prevent the act, but it will at the very least show that it is discouraged and make it more difficult for these girls to solicit themselves.

If these sites step up to the plate, then I think we can get the benefit of preventing this undesired use of social media while protecting its use towards healthy expression. Only time will tell really…we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

By: PurplePeopleEater

PurplePeopleEater — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:33:56 +0000

I <3 this comment.

By: Jac Star

Jac Star — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:25:43 +0000

vomit

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:41:50 +0000

That is true. Some sort of regulation would be necessary, I’m just afraid regulation might lead to limiting the ways people express themselves. It’s a very touchy issue, and maybe it’s something that needs to be worked on and improved one baby step at a time. It’s sad to see stuff like this happen, in general and even more sad that we need to even regulate a medium that is so good at helping people express themselves.

By: PurplePeopleEater

PurplePeopleEater — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:13:08 +0000

Yes, the primary issue here is the attitude towards sexual behaviour held by these girls. That being said, it’s important to look at how the medium being used develops this behaviour. The fact that social media is a free, open, and relatively unregulated medium available to the majority of people plays a significant part in the ease with which these girls look at advertising their services and their subsequent behaviour. If there was an associated cost or the internet was not so easily within their reach, it is unlikely that we would be witnessing this occurrence.

It’s not so easy as to say that it’s one thing over another – when it comes to explaining the causes of an individual’s behaviour, there are always multiple explanations and multiple influences that always play off one another. I personally think that better regulation of social media is necessary, and not only from governments or businesses. Parents are in the best position (usually) to regulate a child’s use of the internet along with developing their attitudes.

Of course, they will find other ways to exploit themselves if that is in fact what they wish to do. But that doesn’t mean to leave things as they are in the face of that probability. These avenues need to be limited as they are discovered to facilitate such behaviours. To let it run rampant over the internet would bring into question the utility of the laws we have in place (which are in place for a reason), which has further implications to be discussed at another time.

By: Danny

Danny — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:54:13 +0000

Agreed, Matt. It’s the same thing time and time again (normally) – lack of interest on the home front, or education in schools.

It’s a tough one for the relevant agencies or people to deal with, and not something I envy.