Where is the dark side leading us?

    When it comes to computer mediated communication, there will always be a hype and hysteria point of view - relating to the positive and dark side of CMC. Though there are more regulations being put in place as we continue learning the dangers that CMC can lead to, the dark side will unfortunately continue to exist.
    A few of the examples that really stood out to me regarding the dark side of CMC were the cases where teenagers as young as 10-years-old were committing suicide due to cyber bullying and the extreme negative outcomes CMC enables younger generations to take part in. When I read the article about Rebecca Sedwick in class last week, my stomach kept dropping as I continued reading. I think because we don't hear about it as much in the media, we aren't aware of how many people are actually going to the extreme when using CMC in the wrong reasons. Rebecca's school was notified, her mom took her phone away and deleted all of her social media accounts. Even then, it wasn't enough. What really will be enough at this point? In Rebecca's case, she didn't even have any social media accounts left and people still found ways to send awful messages to her through CMC.
    As much as cases like these do shine a light on the dark side of CMC and make us take a step back and realize what really is taking place, I really don't think we're going to take steps forward any time soon. Unfortunately, I think as younger generations become more accustomed to social media sites at younger and younger ages, we're only going to run into even more issues. CMC is great when it comes to communicating efficiently and quickly in certain circumstances, but the dark side is quickly taking over as we progress as a society.
    Especially when we watched the episode of CatFish in class, I think that was one of the best ways to wrap up a lot of what we've been talking about throughout the entire semester. CMC's biggest downfall is its inability to allow people to fully trust others. It blew my mind when Cassie legitimately thought she was engaged to "Steve." How can someone in their 20s honestly think that having a relationship with someone for two years, who they've never met, is real? A lot of her willingness to believe "Steve" falls back to another dark side of CMC - its brainwashing effects. Cassie couldn't accept that someone who continuously is "busy" and can never video-chat, is obviously not real.
    As computers, social media sites and cell phones continue to progress and advance, it really does scare me where society will go from here. If people really want to, they can find out extremely personal information about you and use it to their benefit in a lot of scary ways, such as stalking. I also hope that we can somehow teach younger generations to put their phones down for five seconds and stop thinking that hiding behind screens is an okay cop-out to drive someone as far as committing suicide.