Do Not Feed the Internet: On Virility and Communication
Remember the “Too Asian” article from Macleans? Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the article’s video cousin:
This video (and many of its kind) are an interesting study into how fast information spreads on the internet. 10, nay, 20 years ago our predecessors probably did not expect the Internet to become such a powerful entity. Alice Wang’s blog post delves into more detail on how one college girl’s life was turned upside down within a WEEK after the unfortunate rant was posted. It got me thinking about how the Internet facilitates communication in such a way that it actually accelerates the entire process from start to finish – and this video is no exception.
In the context of the communication process, Alexandra Wallace is the source. She carefully chose her words of seething hate (or just randomly threw everything together) and decided that posting a video on YouTube would be the best way of getting the message out: that Asians are highly irresponsible and have no “American manners” (in her mind anyway). With her chosen message in hand, she encodes it within her 2-minute spiel/rant by talking about how some Asian students would talk unceasingly on their mobile phones while in the library and how their entire clan shows up during the weekends at their dorms to do all sorts of menial tasks (her thought, not mine). She pulls the video from her account after receiving many scathing comments, but alas, her target audience (the general population, Asians especially) has already taken the time to decode her message and perhaps have it lost in translation as well. The “hordes of Asians” Alex Wallace claims to be annoyed by fire back and post numerous response videos. Soon, the poor college girl gets negative feedback in the form of internet trolls and on a more serious note, death threats. Finally, everything comes full circle when Alex apologizes to the entire Asian community – but not without causing herself undue embarrassment which could have been avoided by communicating her message in a more receptive way.
All in the span of less than a week.
Marketing Lesson#419: Goading the internet is a foolish exercise that should not be attempted. Ever. If you’re up to it, prepare for the worst – and hope for the best.
