Dealing with Social Media Sexism

SF Weekly

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Ladies, how many times has an anonymous troll on the internet told you to “make him a sandwich” in response to even the most vaguely female-related post or comment? As the social media maven for Mother Jones, the answer to that question for me is A LOT. In fact, it seems these days you can’t throw a whale out of a window without it landing on a sexist tweeter. What to do? My newly-launched social media advice column at SF Weekly, Dear @nna, tackles how to deal with sexism in the penis party known as Digg. Excerpt:

The worst thing about Pigg users is they have all the time in the world to fight with you on the Internet. It’s impossible to have a thoughtful argument with someone who plays World of Warcraft for eight hours a day. Such trolls don’t deserve your time. Pity or block them if you must. But while public shaming has its merits, it will also likely incite more hatefulness. Also, Digg isn’t exactly a space for starting a dialogue on the hypocrisy of religious fundamentalism (or equivalent Serious Issue), it’s for sharing articles on Steven Seagal’s new energy drink, open source software that you can jerk off to, and the revelatory details of Tiger Woods’ divorce.

Read the rest at SF Weekly. Got social media etiquette questions for future columns? Leave them below in comments.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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