Every now and then, a real world controversial event will occur that leads to a major discussion and debate on social media networks. Usually these events are filled with emotion and lead people to voice their opinions online which is followed by either support or opposition from other members. Events such as these have raised awarenessed for several topics but have also cost the life's and jobs of others. This occurance is known as bandwagon aggression.
One of the most recent occurances of bandwagon aggression was on May 28, 2016, the day Harambe, a gorilla, was shot and killed. The incident occured whena three year old boy fell into the moat at the Gorilla World habitat. The shooting was viewed heavily controversial as several onlookers noted that it was unclear whether Harambe posed any real danger to the boy.Furthermore, others blamed the parents and or the zoo for the death of the gorilla. On social media the mother of the boy became an easy target for others to voice their hatred for her "lack of parenting skills". One thing to note was that often in debates, people would repeadtely note how gentle gorillas are by nature . Most deiscussion revolved around the same sentences and responses, "Gorillas are kind", "Horrible mother" "He could have been saved". People who epreviously never showed any signs of admiring gorillas or such an opinion were now jumping in dicussions and admitting they always cared for gorillas. Personally, I do not think bandwagon is truly a horrible thing but I do believe it to be unethical that people begin caring after an event occured and almost seems fake. One usually tends to join a discussion is a majority of people have done so, hence the name bandwagon aggression. The only pro I can say about bandwagon aggression is that it raises awareness and makes people take notice.
24 Comments
Miriam
5/3/2017 12:09:25 am
Hello Joseph,
Reply
Eliasar Gandara
5/3/2017 07:05:56 pm
Miriam,
Reply
Martin Almaraz
5/18/2017 07:27:27 pm
Social media has definitely influenced the bandwagon approach to young people in my opinion. It allows people from all over the world to form echo chambers of ideas, weather right or wrong and very much focus that energy.
Reply
Jose Cortez
5/20/2017 10:25:09 pm
Though I agree that bandwagoinng is a real problem, I think that the whole harambe incident turned into more of a joke than actual support for him.
Reply
5/3/2017 11:28:31 am
I think bandwagoning is something that we see so often that we no longer notice it. It's an interesting phenomenon to observe. From the gorilla example in your blog, I see bandwagoning as being more harmful than it is good. People can get into a mob mentality that allows them to justify doing or saying things they wouldn't normally. Bandwagoning brings awareness to issues that wouldn't otherwise be noticed, but also causes much more important issues to be washed out by the noise created by these bandwagoners.
Reply
Eliasar Gandara
5/3/2017 07:11:36 pm
Hello Joseph,
Reply
Martin Almaraz
5/18/2017 07:29:40 pm
Yes, the root of this problem cannot be traced to any single thing. It also cannot be said that shooting the gorilla was the best decision, but it was the only decision that garenteed the safety of the child. This is because, like humans, gorillas can be completely unpredicable and we could not have left any doubt or trust that he would harm the child.
Reply
Jose Cortez
5/20/2017 10:26:55 pm
I agree with you but I also think that the person that should be held the most responsible are the kids parents. This incident would have never happened if they had even the smallest clue of where their child was.
Reply
Anita
5/3/2017 07:21:23 pm
Joseph,
Reply
Eliasar Gandara
5/3/2017 07:55:07 pm
That's an interesting perspective, Anita. I can see what you mean, where agreeing with others isn't unethical, but that it can lead to unethical decisions. I still feel that being a part bandwagon aggression is unethical because it seems like unnecessary hatred towards someone in a very high volume.
Reply
Jose Cortez
5/20/2017 10:29:42 pm
I think that the main idea behind a bandwagon is not unethical, but when those hive mind groups start causing actual damage or start brigading websites, then it becomes unethical in my opinion.
Reply
Adrienne Horca
5/4/2017 11:31:06 am
Joseph,
Reply
5/5/2017 12:40:51 pm
I think you are right that people tend to care about things afters situation like that happens. I'm sure there might be an issue with our planet, but there might be something wrong that happens to our environment that will make everyone join the cause to fix it. But, the sad part is that it might be too late later on for those who even care or try to care. Do you know what I mean?
Reply
Pearce Reinsch
5/5/2017 07:59:54 pm
I completely agree that bandwagon aggression is not an ethical decision. I believe that if a person takes action simply because everyone else is doing it and with no other forethought or consideration then they are not performing their duty as a free thinking human being. Now, if after deliberation a person decides they agree with the group for reasons other than the group having the same opinion then I think that decision is perfectly ethical.
Reply
Martin Almaraz
5/18/2017 07:36:02 pm
Pearce,
Reply
Angela Bomarito
5/11/2017 08:44:31 pm
Hi Joseph, unfortunately this is the kind of world we live in now with social media pretty much being like a news source for a lot of people. It reminds me of when Michael Jackson died. All of a sudden all of these "die-hard" MJ fans came out of no where when he died, but before they seemed to never care about him. I think with something controversial like the Harambe situation people feel the need to voice their concerns because they feel like they need to look like they care on social media, even though they may not even know the full story of what happened. I agree with you and I think the bandwagon aggression is not an ethical decision, but more of being a sheep following the herd.
Reply
Fernando Madrigal
5/12/2017 05:51:18 pm
Hello Joseph,
Reply
Akoni
5/13/2017 07:45:20 pm
I think this was an interesting thought to think about. Most of the time, you hear about people jumping on the bandwagon when it comes to things, such as, sports, but I hadn't really thought about it in a way like this. Most of the time the people jumping on the bandwagon are not fully aware of the entire story. I do agree that an upside to this is the fact that it does raise awareness.
Reply
Gabriel Zapata
5/14/2017 07:58:02 pm
I completely agree and only see that one pro with bandwagoners. Something i would want to see more is people being more transparent in which they state they arent familiar but are saying their opinions only because of X event.
Reply
Martin Almaraz
5/18/2017 07:41:24 pm
I think that your one pro of the bandwagon is also its worst trait. Simply having a group of people who all share the same idea or ideology can create an echo chamber were people all feed off of each other and further believe that they are correct in their judgment.
Reply
Samuel
5/15/2017 11:18:54 am
People leverage their individual annonymity along with the strength of the many to fuel arguably unnecessary conflict. In a lot of cases, as with Harambe, people will go as far as to make a joke out of the situation for the sake of disturbing people. I don't necessarily think bandwagoning, as you put it, is bad, however the aggressiveness with which people approach the public dialog may be too much at times.
Reply
Shaikh Sultani
5/18/2017 10:18:52 pm
While I may not be a big fan of bandwagon aggression, it does help bring up issues that may normally die down quickly. The people who have that aggression from bandwagoning is something scary, and it could potentially be dangerous.
Reply
In my opinion, they should of not shot the gorilla. This gorilla is at a zoo, how many times people go in his cage to give him food? This gorilla is train to not hurt people. Therefore, I don't think it was right for them to shoot the gorilla, they should have other alternatives.
Reply
Jose Cortez
5/20/2017 10:23:38 pm
Hey Joseph, I completely agree with you and think that most people who bandwagon only do it for attention. Every time Facebook has a new filter because of some major event I see everybody I know using it. It would be fine if they actually cared, but most of the time they forget about it in a couple of days.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorFirst generation computer scientist that loves football. Archives
May 2017
Categories |