Assignment 4 Literature & Language Essay Research Paper

Assignment 4
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ASSIGNMENT 4
1. What is Jon Ronson's avalanche and snowflake theory?
Snowflake and Jon Ronson’s avalanche and snowflake theory are theories that can be illustrated when an event that occurred in a tech conference when a person made an offensive joke to a friend and another person heard the joke, felt offended and posted it on social media with their captions. After some time, the post and the pictures went viral. Eventually, these individuals felt criticized and received death threats from different people. All this happened because an inappropriate joke was made. When an ordinary person is publicly shamed, such an individual is likely to get depressed. Social media users who have the habit of disapproving posts might not see the act as a big deal because such events get forgotten after a short while. However, Jon Ronson states that a snowflake can never feel accountable for the avalanche. More than 300 million people display their anger on different social media platforms every day because different people have different opinions (Zeynep Tufekci, 2020). Such comments can have harsh effects on the person who is being shamed. Victims of public shaming end up losing their jobs. Sometimes these individuals can have their dreams shattered, and this can cause permanent damage in their lives.
On the other hand, Ronson comes up with theories that can help an ordinary person cope with such adjustments emotionally. In the long run, Ronson finds a firm that tries to delete a person's name from the internet by feeding the internet with unexceptional mentions of their name. This is referred to as virtual shaming. The effects of virtual shaming are severe.
2. What does correspondent Neil MacDonald mean when he says, "the scary thing about the internet...is that it allows human nature to do as it likes. Shamers abide by no due process. No government oversees them...what has taken form is the biggest Kangaroo court in human history - capricious, vicious, stupid, out of control and all with effective impunity."
It is the nature of every human being to judge others, give their opinions on issues they feel they know everything about. Neil Macdonald believes that people on different social media platforms get away with everything they say without being punished because of the massive secrecy they have been offered. Neil Macdonald asserts, ...