Spring.me: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:21, 22 October 2024

Latest revision as of 02:24, 1 February 2025

Line 45:

In September 2011, another bullying incident, involving anonymous harassment on Formspring, led to the death of a 14-year-old. [[Jamey Rodemeyer]], a student from [[Williamsville North High School]] in [[New York (state)|New York state]], United States, committed suicide on 18 September after repeated incidents of [[bullying]] in real life and on Formspring. Rodemeyer's video, "[[It Gets Better]]", specifically called out Formspring as a factor in contributing to the anti-gay bullying impacting his life.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.buffalonews.com/city/schools/article563538.ece?articleId=563538&pubDate=2011-09-20&order=T&page=3|title=Teenager struggled with bullying before taking his life|publisher=Buffalo News|date=2011-09-20|access-date=2011-09-20}}</ref>

In March 2011, Formspring participated in a White House Conference on Bullying Prevention along with MTV, Facebook, Survey Monkey and others. At the conference, Formspring announced that it was working with The MIT Media Lab to develop new approaches in detecting cyberbullying, and to design interfaces that would help prevent or mitigate when it occurs.<ref>{{cite web|title=PRESIDENT AND FIRST LADY CALL FOR A UNITED EFFORT TO ADDRESS BULLYING|url=httphttps://mobamawhitehouse.whitehousearchives.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/10/president-and-first-lady-call-united-effort-address-bullying|publisher=The White House|access-date=18 August 2011|date=2011-03-10|archive-date=2011-08-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110820181922/http://m.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/10/president-and-first-lady-call-united-effort-address-bullying|url-status=deadlive}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=O'Dell|first=Jolie|title=Formspring Takes a Stand Against Bullies — With Help From MIT|url=http://mashable.com/2011/03/10/formspring-bullying/|publisher=Mashable|access-date=18 August 2011}}</ref> In January 2012, Formspring also announced that it was a sponsor of the Great American NO BULL Challenge, a nationwide video contest that encourages teenagers to stand up to bullying.<ref>{{cite web|title=Introducing the Great American NO BULL Challenge|url=http://blog.formspring.me/2012/01/introducing-the-great-american-no-bull-challenge/|work=Formspring Blog|access-date=5 February 2012}}</ref>

The concept of Formspring was copied by the creators of [[Ask.fm]], who used the same format of allowing anonymous questioning by people who knew each other offline, which some experts believe is a toxic mix that will inevitably lead to trouble for some users. Both sites have been linked to several teenage suicides.<ref>Binns, Amy (2014) "Twitter City and Facebook Village: teenage girls' personas and experiences influenced by choice architecture in social networking sites", ''Journal of Media Practice'' Vol. 15, Iss. 2, 2014 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14682753.2014.960763 free version available at https://www.academia.edu/9345514/Twitter_City_Facebook_Village_Teenage_girls_personas_and_experiences_influenced_by_choice_architecture_in_social_networking_sites</ref><ref>Binns, Amy (2013) Facebook’s Ugly Sisters: Anonymity and Abuse on Formspring and Ask.fm. Media Education Research Journal . Volume 4, Issue 1. ISSN 2040-4530 http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/8378/</ref>