MacKenzie Goodwin

Assignment 2
Introduction:
The majority of everyone always dreams about being a part of this elite world that
includes money and power. So, imagine being a teenager living in New York City. Not
just anywhere in NYC, but living on the Upper East Side. Imagine being a child to some
of the most powerful and know parents in the city. Being chauffeured around by your
own personal driver in a limo and attending some of the most exclusive private schools.
Imagine your gifts being hundred dollars worth of designer clothing and jewels. Being
able to fly all over the world just when you want to. Also, getting invitations to exclusive
parties and being allowed to party in the most known clubs. All of this while youre still
just a teenager. It sounds pretty perfect doesnt it?
Well what if while living this incredible and fast pace life that you have someone
recording every public encounter and private issue in your life? What if this person can
receive that secret information about yourself just from a simple text by your closest
friend or a complete stranger that you dont know? What if you were to also figure out
that the post all this information about you on a social media site that everyone you know
and dont know can see? Now that doesnt sound too glamorous does it? This was an
issue presented in The CW show Gossip Girl as this elite group of teenagers were being
harassed, exposed and blackmailed by a blog called Gossip Girl. This is just not an
issue for the higher class of our society, but negative social media exposure can affect
anybody at anytime. This is relatable for me because Ive seen some people post, tweet,
sub tweet and comment negative things about myself. It hurts to know that not only is
someone saying this bad thing about you and that youre seeing, but so many other
people can see that comment too. Negative social media exposure is an issue especially
for teens. But, its not just the issue of teens bashing each other on social media sites its
really the issue how it affects everyone else. How reputations and credibility in other
people like the teens parents, siblings, friends or whoever can be ruined because a
comment made about that teen. The domino affect is present in negative social media
exposure of someone because once it affects him or her it will start to affect everyone
else around him or her.
Literacy Review:
The sources that Ive researched have various differencing opinions about social
media use. While the majority of my sources have agreed that social media use in
negative ways the version of each source was different. In my first source that was an
NPR related article that had the talk show host, Michael Martin, discuss celebrities and
their parenting skills in Parents Draw The Line On Teen Relationships and Social
Media. Martin and guests hosts were talking about a controversial photo that Willow
Smith posted on social media and how her parents saw no wrong in the picture. Martin
started to discus parenting when it comes to social media and how theres a difference
between how celebrity parents react to situation versus normal parents (parents of a
lower class). Compared to other NPR articles about negative social media use; another

MacKenzie Goodwin
article written by, Scott Neuman, talks about social media crack down in China in the
article Beijing To Crack Down On Social Media Slanderous Rumors. Neuman talks
about the Chinese government have created laws that ban people and/or groups
slandering others on social media. This does include the creation of rumors on social
media sites that can ruin the reputations of government officials and well-known people
in the country. Neuman goes on explaining how lawyers in China are trying to get these
laws changed because even though the purpose of these laws are agreeable that people
are getting arrested for simply misstating a fact that was not purposely. Lastly, another
NPR article, Breaking Bad News To Kids: How Media Has Tweaked The Process
expressed the opinion of how social media lets the children of our generation know about
tragic events before their parents get to discuss it with them. The host of the radio show
(and the article), John Donvan, talks about how parents nowadays have to watch what
their children do when they go onto websites because of how easy they have access to
information about tragic events or other negative things. Donvan introduces different
guest speaks who are professionals in the fields of children psychology (for example) and
some speakers who are just everyday parents. A main point that was talked about how its
so hard for parents to monitor what their children view on social media sites or what their
children also post on social media sites. NPR overall covers the basic issues with social
media uses in a negative matter and how it affects different groups of people that being
parents, government, etc.
Other articles that I discovered about negative uses of social media focused more
on issues that people wouldnt usually think of first when it comes to my topic. In the
article, Fame Is a Losing Game: Celebrity Gossip Blogging, Bitch Culture and
Postfeminism, discuss how celebrity gossip blogs and use of social media has become a
daily thing in our everyday lives. The writer of the article, Kirsty Fairclough, speaks
about the way that blogs talk about celebrities and how these sites diminish anything
good about that person. Blogs and social media sites tend to focus on anything negative
about a celebrity and highlight that to its viewers/readers instead of the good things. This
has become such an adaptation to our society that we tend to not care if the celebrity gets
treated cruelty by the sites instead we are entertained by the mean jokes and comments.
This article relates to the concept of cyberbullying and how its becoming a major issue
now for not just celebrities, but for children and teens in our recent generation. In,
Cyberbullying: Who Are the Victims? A Comparison of Victimization in Internet
Chatrooms and Victimization in School, talks about an experiment that was conducted at
German secondary schools about children being bullied in chatrooms and/or other social
media sites versus bullying happened at schools. Researchers: Catarina Katzer, Detlef
Fetchenhauer, and Frank Belschak have found that there was a strong relationship
between children and/teens being bullied in chatrooms were most likely being bullied at
school too. So, cyberbullying and social media slandering is not only a common issue for
known people in the upper class, but also for anyone else as well.
A couple of my last sources dont focus on either of the positions that Ive already
discussed earlier. Blackmail through social media is introduce into my topic discussion as
the North Yorkshire Police Department produced a report called, Urgent Warning
Following Internet Blackmail Scam, to their public area. The report talked about a
woman using Facebook (a social media site) and befriended three males on the site. She
then messaged them on Facebook to video chat her over Skype (another social media

MacKenzie Goodwin
site). She then proceeded to perform sexual acts on camera for the men and when she was
done began to ask money from them for her sick grandmother. When the men declined
giving her such money the woman then threaten to release the video to the public of them
watching her if they didnt pay her. The police department continued to state that
incidents like the one reported have been increasing over the years as advancements and
use of technology have increased. Schemers use social media in a negative way to
blackmail others for money or other items of value. But, sometimes blackmail can come
from others that surround us in our everyday lives that feed private information about
ourselves to one person. That one person being bloggers, user of social media and other
leadership roles like that in this technology advanced world. In the article, Blogs Give
Regular People the Chance to Talk Back: Rethinking professional Media Hierarchies in
New Media, discussed how there isnt a distinct fine line between the audience and
controllers of blog and/or social media sites. The writer, Erin A. Meyers, states that the
audiences become the producers sometimes for social media sites because the audience
tends to be in the position of providing information while the controllers of the site just
edit and interpret. This is why celebrity gossip pages thrive because our society is so
accustomed to being nosy and wanting to hear about the personal lives of others. With
this need and desire thats why people of our society are so willing to give out others
information.
Overall, all these points that were discussed in my sources can all be examples in
my observation of the television series, Gossip Girl. My last source, Assignment 1, I
produced three observations from three different episodes in the series. I discussed in my
observations of events that happened in the episodes based on this elite group of
teenagers that live on the Upper East Side of New York City. I described the negative
events in their lives that have happened because of the infamous and anonymous blogger,
Gossip Girl, as it reports every secret and detail on their lives to everyone in NYC. This
relates to the topics of blackmail, cyberbullying and negative over exposure of the elite
group in our society.
Entering Conversation:
In the show, Gossip Girl, whenever there was a negative social media post
about one of the teenagers in the show it affected not only the characters, but also the
people who were close to them the most. People who had the trust of the characters
would be their friends, but mainly their parents as parents received the most backlash of
negative social media posts about their children. I think that they receive the most
backlash because if the negative posts are publicized people tend to critique the parenting
of the parents. In an NPR article, Parents Draw The Line On Teen Relationships and
Social Media, the talk show host, Michael Martin, discusses with authors whove
written about parenting and are parents themselves if they thought a photo of Willow
Smith (a know child of famous actor Will Smith) who was lying in bed with a shirtless 20
year old man. Willow was 13 at the time and in the picture there is no sexual behavior
going on between the two, as the man in the photo is a family friend. But, in the sights of
the authors the first thing to criticize or question was Will Smith and his wife, Jada Smith,
parenting skills over their children. In the article there was a quote from Jada Smith
stating about her thoughts on the picture, There was nothing sexual about that picture or

MacKenzie Goodwin
that situations. You guys are projecting your trash onto it. And youre acting like covert
pedophiles thats not cool. The authors continue to talk about how when it comes to your
child and not only their social media sites, but just in their actions in general that there
needs to be boundaries set. So, overall all the guest speakers on Martins show agreed
that the post was inappropriate and at the fault of Willows parents based on how they
raised her.
But, there was a point that was presented by one of the guest speakers about how
celebrities raise their children versus how middle class parents raise their children. And
celebrities often have very different lives than - you know, than the rest of us(Martin,
Parents Draw The Line On Teen Relationships and Social Media). This is a good point
because the upper class itself do have very different lives then the middle class. Usually
people who are in the upper class have powerful and known positions in the public.
Sometimes parents in the upper class cant be normal parents to their children because
of the influences in their world. Those influences being in the constant watch of the
public and having no privacy in their lives which is why parents who are celebrities or are
in the upper class have to treat their children more grown to make sure they dont go in
the wrong direction. Because being a teenager or child in the upper class world I assume
that you would have greater pressures of drug and alcohol use, parties, promiscuous
behaviors and other negative influences. So, some parents in high society may think
about what their children do not that bad compared to how a parent from a lower class
may react. Back to Willows photo, her mother thought it wasnt bad because it wasnt
portraying anything sexual and it was with a close family friend of theirs. In Willows
case, her parents have treated her more like an adult because of the world she is
surrounded by. This is the same case in the show, Gossip Girl, as the teenagers
behaviors such going out in the city to clubs to party, drink and just socializing with
people who may be older than them is not a shock to their parents if they see it on social
media. (Michael Martin, Parents Draw The Line On Teen Relationships and Social
Media).
Some parents in the upper class world may be ok with some things on social
media be publicized about their children whether its good or bad because criticism and
negative feedback is common in their world. But, other situations it affects the parents the
most due to their reputations then being on the line. My Assignment One in Observation
3 of Gossip Girl there was an incident where the main character, Serena Van Der
Woodsen, was being accused of consuming alcohol and doing drugs based on someone
seeing her visiting a rehab center. This was publicized all over social media sites like
Gossip Girl and was even announced at an event with Ivy League school representatives.
What others didnt know was Serena wasnt visiting the rehab center because of herself,
but because her brother, Eric, was a patient there due to a suicide attempt. This incident
drove Serenas mother, Lily, overboard because she not was she worried about Serenas
reputation and her possibly not getting into Ivy League schools due to this false
information, but she was worried about herself too. Lily had already been criticized about
not being a part of Serena and Erics lives and she didnt want people to think that her
child Serena was a drug addict or a partier because of her parenting. Lily also had a high
position in the Upper East Side society and she was known by some of the most powerful
people. Because of negative social media posts about her daughter, Lilys position in this

MacKenzie Goodwin
society could have been threaten or even diminished. (MacKenzie Goodwin,
Assignment One: Observation 3).
Blackmail is a major issue that can threaten the reputation of families especially
the parents. Blackmail was introduced as an effect of negative social media use in the
police report from the North Yorkshire Police Department earlier in my paper. Families
who are put in this position of being exposed negatively on social media usually settle
with the blackmailer instead of reporting it to the police. This scam is causing
considerable distress to the victims and I urge anyone who uses any kind of social
networking site to be very wary of what they are getting into (Detective Sergeant
Rebecca Dyer, Urgent Warning Following Internet Blackmail Scam). Just like the
quote stated, blackmail is usually kept hidden by the family especially if theyre in the
upper class. In the show, Gossip Girl, blackmailers were present against the families in
the show all the time. For example, the Bass family had to deal with their son, Chucks,
sexual behavior that sometimes resulted into sexual harassment or his also his
involvement with drugs. Chucks father, Bart Bass, would pay off news outlets,
photographers, bloggers and anyone that would have information about his son and his
behaviors. Bart never went to the police about the blackmailers or the possibility of his
family being exposed negatively because it reflected on Bart and his parenting skills. In
my opinion, I believe that families dont report situations like these to the police because
people will focus on their parenting skills and how the parents couldve raised their child
to know better instead of how these social media bloggers are blackmailing the families.
(North Yorkshire Police Department, Urgent Warning Following Internet Blackmail
Scam).
Earlier I discussed about the article, Fame Is a Losing Game: Celebrity Gossip
Blogging, Bitch Culture and Postfeminism, how social media bashing has become an
everyday thing in our lives. Such blogs report the scandalous, glamorous and everyday
behaviors of celebrities at such a frenetic pace that traditional celebrity gossip delivery
mechanisms are struggling to compete (Kirsty Fairclough, Fame Is a Losing Game:
Celebrity Gossip Blogging, Bitch Culture and Postfeminism). In that point that Kirsty
brings up in completely noticeable in my observation of the television series, Gossip
Girl, how the blog in the show will do anything possible to get the most juiciest and
scandalous information because thats what the audience wants. The blog, Gossip Girl, in
the show will personally send out a text to all of her followers asking them to retrieve
information with her being that the grand prize is that she gives them a shout out on her
site for being a great provider. Personally, I think the teens in the show even teens and/or
people in real life find this thrilling because they get to find out something that others
dont know and then report to the master of the social media site. People dont this
because its satisfying to them, but I feel like people dont understand the consequences
that their actions can cause. Especially with those people affecting the lives of the person
that they received information about and their families in the process too. The families
are put into a position where theyre eventually being watched and exposed because
maybe sometimes information about the known child in the family isnt enough. Thats
why in present celebrity bashing blogs like Perez Hilton, TMZ and other sites like those
dont only go after the celebrity but go after their families as well because its to keep the
audience entertained. Thats why celebrities and their families are put in such a
vulnerable position because they have to be careful about what they do or else it will be

MacKenzie Goodwin
plastered all over social media sites and it will most likely be presented in a negative way.
(Kirsty Fairclough, Fame Is a Losing Game: Celebrity Gossip Blogging, Bitch Culture
and Postfeminism).
Conclusion:
What stuns me the most about our society is that we always see in the news about
how cyberbullying is bad, how slandering others is bad, how producing rumors about
your peers is bad and other things like that yet in our social class we have no problem
doing those types of things to people who may be higher class. We have no problem
reading social media posts and blog sites that bash celebrities and expose families
because we find them entertaining yet we wouldnt want those things to happen to us. A
lot of people who includes the bloggers and their audiences dont realize what their
actions do to these celebrities and their families. In the show even the characters realize
that using this blog is not something to mess with and that they shouldnt be sending in
their friends private information to this site just because they make them mad. The
characters realize this because they see the domino effect that happens within the person
and their family. Its also the act of growing up and maturing as a person to realize that if
there is an issue to discuss in person not to glorify it on social media for everyone to see.
In a perfect world, we would have no social media at all. In an even more perfect world,
we would have social media but no one would use it in negative ways. Even though thats
an impossible idea, I think more people in our society needs to realize that we wouldnt
want blogs and other social media outlets bashing ourselves including the people we love
like our families. Maybe our society just need to walk in the shoes of someone who is
known, a celebrity or someone maybe in a higher class than them to realize not
everything is perfect as it seems.

MacKenzie Goodwin

Work Sited Page

1. "Parents Draw The Line On Teen Relationships And Social Media."
Www.NPR.org. National Public Radio. Web. 13 May 2014.
<http://www.npr.org/2014/05/13/312142726/parents-draw-the-line-on-teenrelationships-and-social-media>.
2. Neuman, Scott. "Beijing To Crack Down On Social Media 'Slanderous Rumors'"
Www.npr.org. National Public Radio. Web. <http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwoway/2013/09/10/221111680/beijing-to-crack-down-on-social-media-slanderousrumors>.
3. "Breaking Bad News To Kids: How Media Has Tweaked The Process."
Www.npr.org. National Public Radio. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.npr.org/2013/06/18/193135999/breaking-bad-news-to-kids-howmedia-has-tweaked-the-process>.
4. Fairclough, Kirsty. "Fame Is a Losing Game: Celebrity Gossip Blogging, Bitch
Culture and Postfeminism." Https://www.questia.com. Engage Learning. Web.
https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-194279234/fame-is-a-losing-gamecelebrity-gossip-blogging
5. Katzer, Catarina, Detlef Fetchenhauer, and Frank Belschak. "Cyberbullying: Who
Are the Victims? A Comparison of Victimization in Internet Chatrooms and
Victimization in School." Http://econtent.hogrefe.com. Hogrefe Publishing, 6
June 2008. Web. 6 June 2008.
<http://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/abs/10.1027/1864-1105.21.1.25>.
6. "Urgent Warning Following Internet Blackmail Scam."
Http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk. North Yorkshire Police Department, 9 Jan.
2015. Web. 9 Jan. 2015. <http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/14909>.
7. Meyers, Erin A. "Blogs Give Regular People the Chance to Talk Back:
Rethinking professional Media Hierarchies in New Media."
Http://nms.sagepub.com. SAGE Publications, 22 Mar. 2012. Web. 22 Mar. 2012.
<http://nms.sagepub.com/content/14/6/1022.short>.
8. Goodwin, MacKenzie. "Assignment 1." Observation 1: 6. Microsoft. Web. 20 Oct.
2015.

MacKenzie Goodwin