Recently during the Superbowl, Coca Cola had a new commercial for their popular product Coke. This new commercial for this long loved american brand had an iconic american song; America the Beautiful- but with a twist. The commercial had the song sung in multiple languages which sparked quite the outrage in “true” Americans. Many tweeters, tweeted comments towards Coca Cola claiming that America the Beautiful is an American song, and that it should be sung in “american”. Not only were there many racial slurs thrown in the mix about the cultures and ethnicity’s that took part in the said commercial, but many tweeters stated that they were disgusted with what brand had done. They also stated that they would never drink Coke again due to this commercial. My question is, are social media outlets a domain in which people can freely speak their minds or in reality just virtual places that breeds hatred? It seems like social media outlets like Twitter, who utilizes hash tags are making it easier for narrow minded individuals to gather those alike with negative outlooks on various topics and ideas and spreading them like wildfire. Should we have a filter on these social media outlets to determine what is and isn’t appropriate? But on what level can we do this? You can read some of these comments here.
I am glad that you brought this issue up (I was so close to writing a blog about this as well, but you beat me to it). I have watched the commercial and read the cruel Twitter posts and I don’t think anything should be done about it. Social medias, like Twitter, is a public domain for everyone to share their opinions and I believe that as soon as Twitter attempts to “block” or “filter” such comments, it will be on the receiving end of the hateful comments – comments that might accuse Twitter of following NSA-like actions or the government censorship practices in China.
What I think should be done is to let it dissolve itself. If no one shares these comments with their friends on Facebook or through word of mouth, then these posts will be forgotten as soon as Justin Bieber gets caught doing something silly (just kidding about the Justin Bieber part, but you get my point). I believe people need to understand that companies, like Coca Cola, are just as, if not more, internationally exposed than everyone in the United States. If I may speak English and Cantonese to anyone I know, then I don’t see why corporations like Coca Cola do something similar for its consumers via an advertisement.
This is such a sensitive debate that i believe we will be discussing for many years to come. There are so many advantages and disadvantages to social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. While there are many positives that can come from such platforms we must also look at the negatives. This goes back to the argument of net neutrality. Should free platforms like the internet be restricted to what content may be shown like places in China and Iran. Or should we give Americans the freedom to discuss whatever they want whenever. And who would govern which topics we are allowed to discuss and which were not. I certainly wouldn’t want or need our government for that. We as a nation should think of a logical solution for such discussions of blatant racism and discrimination. But at the same time it gives the world a sense of where the Americans stand and what they believe. If we DO restrict these topics we wouldn’t ever really know whats on their minds. And everyone would be lead to believe that everything is fine and dandy when its really not.
Ahhh there’s probably nothing that bugs me more than a situation like this. I believe that social media isn’t the issue at hand when it comes to this topic. No matter how hard we try, there will always be those people out there who are very opinionated about this subject (both positive and negative). This is an issue that I can’t quite wrap my head around only because the arrogance is just so illogical…but I guess that would only make me another opinionated reader. There was another incident where this took place during the Miss America 2014 Pageant. The winner Nina Davuluri was scrutinized over the internet for being a cultured woman of Indian Decent. Various hateful Tweets and Facebook statues by unsatisfied “Americans” floated around the internet claiming that the new crowned Miss America should have never won the title due to her ethnicity. Sometime I believe that it is a good thing that issues of these sort go viral on social networking sites. It shines light on the arrogance of our society and gives people a chance to come together and voice their opinions to rebel against the hatred.
Here are a few of the comments that were made on twitter.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/a-lot-of-people-are-very-upset-that-an-indian-american-woman
My question is, are social media outlets a domain in which people can freely speak their minds or in reality just virtual places that breeds hatred? It seems like social media outlets like Twitter, who utilizes hash tags are making it easier for narrow minded individuals to gather those alike with negative outlooks on various topics and ideas and spreading them like wildfire. Should we have a filter on these social media outlets to determine what is and isn’t appropriate? But on what level can we do this? You can read some of these comments
It seems that most people don’t filter what they say or even think of the consequences or people’s reactions to their public posts. Some people might think that these platforms are their way of expressing their freedom of speech, so to censor or limit what they can or cannot say would in a sense be taking their right of speech from them. I agree that there are some things that should not be said so openly on social media because there’s a time and place for things, however most people will post their opinion at their own risk without consideration of their words. People are entitled to their own opinions and allowed to express them so long as nobody is harmed because of these opinions. If someone tweets or publicly posts something that actually poses a threat to the general public, then I believe that something should be done. Also if you’re aware that your opinion will instigate controversy and potential inappropriate comments, then it might just be best to keep them to yourself to not only prevent conflict on social media, but maybe for your own protection.
There will always be trolls on the internet. The thing to do is to not feed the trolls. If you look at the YouTube comments section, under many videos, people start arguments over things that are irrelevant to the video or they feel the need to bash about something or someone. Then there are those who respond back to them and it just goes to the top comments under a video that is totally unrelated to that argument. With any social media outlet, people need to learn internet ethics about what they say instead of feeling invincible just because they can hide behind a screen. There are many close-minded people who spread negativity on the internet, but they can either be ignored, or groups of people can strike back at them. It is difficult to completely filter and censor out these people on social media, but we should all just learn to be less ethnocentric and open to others’ opinions and cultures. Those tweeters are so ignorant of the fact that America is made up of immigrants from all over the world that speak many different languages, and to call themselves American… its just sad to see. Some of those tweets are so ridiculous it makes me laugh at their ignorance.
I really loved the Coca-Cola superbowl ad. It represents everything United States of America stands for. It is also funny as I was reading through the comment section, I saw people thinking it is parody for ‘Star Spangled Banner.’ I think it is a shame that people do not pay attention to details and accept the reality. Just like Lisha said, there will be trolls and they will always try to ruin good things. Still there are more likes to that video (43,071 to be exact and 10,301 dislikes) makes me happy because most people still take stands for better things.