Well not mine – thank goodness. WHEW!
There are two stories this week where the participants have said they were hacked in order to not accept responsibility for words THEY posted or tweeted.
As Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker in Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility”. (Yes – I’m a bit of a nerd.) I strongly believe that applies to social media.
If you missed it – Earlier today, a 14 year old named Sarah tweeted a terrorist threat to American Airlines.
American Airlines reacted strongly (much to her surprise).
Twitter and the other platforms lit up and the tweets are going viral.
Once AA responded to Sarah, she freaked and reversed her position claiming it was a friend that had tweeted that to the airline. Seriously? Of course she went on to be somewhat thrilled with her 15 minutes of fame but worried that her parents would take her account away. In my opinion, they should anyway. She proved not to be able to handle the responsibility of a public platform. But that’s my personal opinion.
The second instance is our friends from Amy’s Baking Company. Remember them from last year?
They’re baa-ack!!
Friday night was the season premiere of Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey and they revisited Amy’s Baking Company in Scottsdale, AZ. You remember Amy and Samy Bouzaglo. Amy’s Baking Company was the first restaurant Gordon ever had to walk away from. It was (or I should say they were) THAT bad!
OK – I admit it. I do love Gordon Ramsey and Kitchen Nightmares. Granted, some of the things he finds in these restaurants scare the bajeezus out of me. The thought that any kitchen could be that dirty, disorganized, or worse (insert your worst nightmare here). YUCK! I have a so much fun watching Gordon rant and rave and then transform someone’s business. He gives a whole new meaning to being passionate about his craft and some of his tirades are not for the faint of heart. Good thing I’m not easily offended.
In the original episode, Amy and Samy both came off looking like totally cray-cray. We’re talking raving lunatics. They were convinced that the world was out to get them. Yelp reviewers were liars that had never tried the food. They were being attacked unfairly. Customers who didn’t like the food were WRONG and asked to leave. It was genuinely shocking and almost uncomfortable to watch.
To make it all worse, they then took the fight to social media to “defend” themselves and created the biggest online Sh*t-storm anyone had ever seen. Bloggers and foodies alike had a field day. Skits and cartoons appeared all over the internet. The online battle made national news. Amy’s Baking Company became the poster child of what NOT to do in social media.
When the proverbial “poop” hit the fan, they reversed position and claimed that someone had hacked their accounts. They weren’t responsible for what was posted and tweeted. WHAT?! Strangely enough, it didn’t stop them from trying to capitalize on their notoriety by selling tee shirts with those infamous quotes on them.
Both instances are prime examples of the power (both good and bad) of social media. But it begs the question — Where do we draw the line? Do you believe you are responsible for what you post? I truly believe in freedom of speech but I also believe it should be tempered with common sense. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave me a comment, I read every one of them and I can’t wait to hear from you.
I always preach the same to family and friends. Social media is a way of expressing one’s thoughts and feelings but I believe we should all be responsible with our posts especially if it’ll affect somebody’s credibility and integrity (and livelihood, too!). Besides, any posts we do will also show how responsible we are not to mention our character being exposed every time we post something. If I’m to hire someone for example, I’d check on social media first and take a look at “that” person’s way of thinking. People don’t realize how social media exposes that, too. The way a person uses a certain word, throw jokes or simply replying/commenting to a post shows ones character and we should at any time “wear” it whether virtually or in the “real world”. 🙂
I absolutely agree Roche! What we put out there is truly a reflection of ourselves – for better or for worse.
What the heck are these people thinking? Are they that stupid to think that they can get away from accepting responsibility for their actions? Mind boggling
The stories like these just blow my mind too.
I think by now EVERYONE knows that what you say in print can come back to haunt, hurt or get you in deep trouble. Someone chooses to say something stupid it’s because they want the publicity, even if bad press. Their judgement is messed up.
Absolutely, we all need to be held accountable for what we say and/or tweet! I just saw an episode of Kitchen Nightmares that revisited the Amy’ Baking Place. Based on their continued behavior, there is no doubt in my mind the claim their account was hacked was a complete farce. Why do people act like such idiots?
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