Category: Uncategorized (Page 2 of 2)
To start on a positive note let’s look at Adrian Chens essay “Unfollow”. In his essay, Chen tells the story of Megan Phelps-Roper, a former member of the Westboro Baptist church. In the beginning of the essay we see examples of how she abused the powers of social media. On World AIDS Day Phelps-Roper tweeted “Thank God for AIDS! You won’t repent of your rebellion that brought His wrath on you in this incurable scourge, so expect more & worse! #red” (Chen 3). Here we see just one of the many examples in the essay, of how she used twitter to spread the hateful views of the church. As the essay progresses however, we see how the connections she made over social media lead to a dramatic change in her beliefs. The most important connection she made was with David Abitbol, a Jerusalem-based Web developer and the founder of the Jewish-culture blog Jewlicious. While talking with Phelps-Roper, Abitbol used playful banter and education to help change her views. “Abitbol had learned while running Net Hate that relating to hateful people on a human level was the best way to deal with them” (Chen 15). Using this knowledge Abitbol was able to start the snowball effect that lead to Phelps-Ropers dramatic change.
During Megan Phelps-Ropers time on social media she met a few people that would help change the way she viewed the world. People like David Abitbol and a man that went by C.G. Both of these men had a profound impact on her and helped her through her change in belief. Some readers would argue that both of the connections had equal impact on her change. I would argue that the connection she had with Abitbol had the most impact on her. As far as we know he was the first person to try and understand her views and use that knowledge to help change them. Instead of just saying she was a horrible person, he took a more playful approach and also educated her. Not only did Abitbol educate Phelps-Roper, he got her curious enough to do her own research. With out Abitbol, I don’t think Phelps-Roper would have began changing her views so early in life.
