Month: October 2010

Chris Guillebeau writes:

When you first head off to places in the world that are a lot different from where you live, a number of things change. You have to learn to adapt.

I still make a lot of mistakes everywhere I go, but I try to learn from each of them. Here’s a short list of things I wish I’d known before I started my routine of extensive overseas travel, especially in countries in Africa, South Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America that are not part of the tourist circuit.

Anil Dash writes:

The truth of it is, calling the cruelty that kids show to one another, based on race or gender identity or class or any other imaginary difference, by a name like “cyberbullying” is a cop-out. It’s a group of parents, school administrators and lazy reporters working together to shirk their own responsibility for the meanspirited, hateful, incomprehensible things their own kids do.

And it’s a myth. There’s no such thing as cyberbullying. There’s only the cruelty in all of us, and the cowardice of making words to hide from it.

He makes some very good points; I definitely agree that blaming technology is somewhat of a cop-out.  However, I think you can’t wholly ignore the fact that the anonymity afforded by a lot of the technology used to bully kids over the Internet plays a big part.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a way to embed this video, so you’ll have to go to NBC4 to watch it.  It’s worth it, though; Vance and Michael are hilarious!  As Elliot in the Morning comments on Facebook, “Despite over forty years in the business, Vance says he will only be remembered for this…” 🙂

[thanks to Ulana for the heads-up]