“There’s an App for that” has become a common phrase as the
possibilities of our digital age are limited only by our imagination.
Unfortunately, those who wish to do harm also have unlimited
ways to pervert and abuse technology.
The latest opportunity for abuse is Yik Yak. http://yikyakapp.com/
Yik Yak was developed to provide college students with a
highly localized way to handle lost & found and Yelp type reviews of on and
off campus services [only the first 500 hundred nearby users connect through GPS tracking on their phones]. It makes sense. The cyber world does not need to be cluttered
by someone looking for their lost book bag at a small college.
Yik Yak has already attracted 100,000 users, and is now in
the top 100 most popular Apps on Apple’s App Store. The downside is the App is becoming a
favorite of Cyber Bullies. In Mobile County ,
Alabama
Similar Yik Yak threat posts led to
evacuations of a high school in Marblehead , Massachusetts , and the lockdown of a high school in San Clemente, California. Officials at
several Chicago
area high schools have warned parents about Yik Yak.
So far the response to Yik Yak has
been to ban the App or block its reception.
Bullying has been around as long as
humans felt the need to establish “pecking orders”. There will always be Apps to enable abusive
behavior. The challenge is creating
cultures and processes to prevent or quickly eradicate this behavior.
I was bullied relentlessly in
school. My underlying identifier was
being a “nerd”. Add to that the Trifecta
of glasses, being a “late bloomer” in terms of height, and “buck teeth” that led
to braces. Play ground taunts in 6th
through 8th grade were bad enough, but the worst came in 9th
grade gym class.
A group of boys were called “F
Troop” after the TV show about dysfunctional soldiers. They were the ones who got the lowest grades
and the detention [my school had no minorities - this was among whites in an
upper middle class suburb]. They used
gym class to harass those of us who were smarter, but less physically developed. I dreaded every moment. Harassment escalated. Once, I was socked in the stomach so hard I
passed out. The gym teacher, a former
Marine, refused to get involved or even call the nurse. He just told me, then age 14, to “be a man”
and work things out myself. When a
hunting knife was brandished at me I went to the school counselors.
The counselors worked with me to
review the entire situation. I agreed
that singling out current offenders would probably lead to others in “F Troop”
taking their revenge. After some research
a solution emerged. There were four groups
of 9th grade boys for the purposes of scheduling gym, study halls,
and some elective courses. The “jock”
group was matched with another group of “nerds”. The counselors agreed to place
the jocks with “F Troop” and the two nerd groups together. The jocks were on equal physical footing
with “F Troop” so the bullying ended.
Or did it? In 2002, Rachel Simmons published her
detailed research on how bullying impacts young women throughout their lives http://www.rachelsimmons.com/books-and-tv/
. Last year, Paul Meshanko, published his ground breaking analysis on how
disrespect fundamentally alters brain chemistry http://respecteffectbook.com/ .
At my 20th high school
reunion very few of the “F Troop” attended.
Many were either in jail or dead (drugs or violence). One “F Troop” alumnus had served in Vietnam and
became an airline pilot, proving that people can change given the right
circumstance. For most of “F Troop”, once labeled by school officials, they
continued on their destructive paths. My
personal trauma in gym class led to a life long ambivalence to sports and
sports’ figures.
Bullying has become more pervasive
because our digital age follows us 24-7.
When I was growing up, I could return home to a loving family and
friends of my choosing. There were no
bullying posts on Facebook, Twitter, Snap Chat, or Yik Yak to haunt me outside
of school.
Today’s digital “echo chamber”
makes it imperative that school officials remain vigilant and pro-active to
bullying. Blocking technology abuse can
certainly help, but finding ways to prevent or diffuse situations and build
anti-bullying values throughout their school’s culture will save lives and
improve others.
Respect and anti-bullying is about
more than technology – it is about behavior and values.
[Scot Faulkner is a Senior Advisor to Legacy Business Cultures. He served as the Chief Administrative Officer
of the U.S. Wayzata
Junior High School in a Minneapolis , Minnesota
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