Several of our course texts have examined instances where people’s careers were destroyed when their offensive speech—like Justine Sacco’s tweet about Africa—or arguably inappropriate actions—like Stacy Snider’s “drunken pirate” —went viral. Furthermore, Jon Ronson makes the argument that the internet is “making us lose our capacity for empathy and for distinguishing between serious and unserious transgressions.” Write an essay in which you respond to Ronson’s central claims. Does the internet and social media “give a voice to the voiceless” (Ronson)—as it originally promised—or has it morphed into something else? Whether you agree with Ronson or not, be sure to consider how we can, in the words of Hillary Clinton, “protect[ing] free expression while fostering tolerance and civility” (575). How are these issues of “free expression and tolerance and civility” ultimately important?
