Qihao Tang

"Unpredicted Avalanche"

Section MS5, Bahar Noorizadeh

Keywords: moving image, technology, social media

Cyber violence is something that is happening in our lives. It is invisible but powerful. Many public figures are suffering such persecution and even choose to end their own lives.

As for the cause of this phenomenon, I think it can be attributed to three main factors.

First, the virtualized and anonymous nature of online media has weakened the sense of responsibility of the Internet users to a large extent. On the one hand, netizens can express their opinions and viewpoints more freely and truthfully, but on the other hand, netizens have almost no responsibility for their speeches, which greatly reduces the netizens' sense of responsibility and law.

Second, the rejuvenation of netizens and herd mentality make online presence emotionally expressive.

Third, the relevant laws are not yet perfect, which makes it difficult to clarify responsibility. It also makes it difficult to pursue accountability in a legal sense.

I have observed that when people are engaged in cyber violence, they need to enter text through the keyboard. It may be a real computer keyboard, or it may be a touch screen keyboard on a mobile phone. They uttered their extreme opinions with impunity by typing on the keyboard. So I think the keyboard is the entrance to cyber violence.

One of the key points I extracted was“the silent explosion”, because many people cannot vent their helplessness after experiencing cyber violence, and can only choose to be quiet and tolerate, or directly end their lives. The second key point is “the process from quantitative change to qualitative change”, because a small amount of cyber violence may not cause particularly serious consequences, but if a group of people violate you, the consequences will be substantially different. The third key point is blindness, because in the networked societies you cannot find yourself, you just follow others to move forward. The last is an avalanche, a result that no one wants to see.