Terms Of Service By Jacob Silverm Chapter Summary

In the novel the “Terms of Service”, Jacob Silverman writes about social media and everything that comes attached to it like the lack of privacy, the unwanted virality and the fake news among other things. He says that social media has made users self-centered always making sure you post everything you are doing so they can rank up viewers. By doing so you are allowing yourself to be tracked therefore losing all privacy. The U.S government have access to internet traffic therefore always aware of what we are doing, and apps themselves share personal information with third parties. He mentions how social media is a double edge sword because you never know how viewers are going to interpret what you post, and “how we put ourselves up for public

Before social media existed, bullying had its limits it didn’t go beyond mean words between the bully and the victim. Now bullies have social media to spread their hate and humiliate their victim ultimately going viral and never to be erased. “In less fortunate circumstances, however, you become Taylor Chapman: infamous, vilified, harassed, and forgotten, except by Google Search, which never forgets” (Silverman 67). Silverman shows how fast the scripts can change like it did for Chapman she went from being the bully to becoming the victim. Chapman wanted her video to go viral and it did but not in the way she intended and now thanks to social media networks she will never be

Everyone post videos of themselves or others hoping they go viral unaware what the outcome might be. By reposting “…fail memes-photos, videos of people screwing up, falling down, or acting like doofuses while trying to achieve some goal or pull off some performance. They satisfy the desire to see others brought low, to ritualize humiliation” (Silverman 60,70) we have become the bullies. Bullies use social media to humiliate their victims knowing that everyone will see it and it will never be erased, some of the outcomes for some victims are devastating. “People don’t understand how much pressure and stress each drop of negativity places on that person, they laugh at a few seconds of video, they don’t know the person, they don’t know the story” (Silverman 74). That was true for Vayner, Silverman uses Vayner as an example of someone who succumbs to his bully’s rants and commits suicide. Everyone has the power to put a stop to bullying as individuals we can choose not to view the videos and choose not to