Julia Allison: A Case Study in Cyberbullying
Julia Allison is personally and professionally a handful. And that’s not me speaking. It’s the second line of her bio.
She’s smart, eloquent, pretty, and an internationally syndicated social media columnist working major news outlets such as:
- CNN - MSNBC - VH1
- Fox - E! - CBS
- NBC - CW - Fox News
- Fox Business - Fuse - G4
She must be doing something right… right?
So why does she receive such scathing responses to just about every piece she’s created? Julia read us some of the e-mails that she’s received in the past few weeks. Needless to say, the audience and I were appalled. How could people do such terrible hateful things?
Anonymity.
Even though social media has brought us together in new ways never imagined before, we have also drifted farther apart. It’s made us colder and sapped us of our ability to empathize.
If you had to describe Julia in one word, it’d be tough. She’s set goals and lets nothing stop her from achieving them. You develop thick skin pretty quickly with that mentality. Regardless, no one should have to deal with the personal scrutiny she receives and hearing how this problem is increasingly prevalent can be a bit disheartening.
At SXSW, collaboration is not only encouraged, it’s mandatory. Julia implores us to remember that as we become more digital, we must remember that there is a person on the other end of that “send”, “comment”, or “tweet” button.
The key take-away for me was this: don’t leave SXSW in Austin. Take that collaborative, empathetic spirit with you wherever you go and use it in whatever you do. Not only will our work and become better, we’ll have more fun doing it too.
