We have to talk about Mladen Dulić, a 22-year-old young man from Laktaš, who committed suicide last week after a several-day campaign of humiliation and harassment to which he was exposed on social networks. At first glance, the local story is actually a testimony of the time and space we live in, and its long shadow covers not only the region where it resonated, but also two office buildings in San Francisco and Menlo Park in the US, California.
First about buildings and boards.
Elon Musk, the capitalist superstar, bought Twitter last week, after a long hunt full of sharp turns and sharp protests in an atmosphere of anxiety that spilled over into the market and users. On the same day, perhaps just as Mask was signing the annex, Mladen took his own life. In the first statement, the new owner of Twitter stated his goals: "liberating" this social network in the direction of greater inclusion of different opinions. Cool, but. If this "return of dialogue" that Musk mentions means less regulation and freer use of the platform, I hope someone told him that this would immediately lead to a multifold increase in toxic - violent, pornographic, fake news - content. Anyone who has been in contact with any digital content, especially those who have produced or moderated it, knows this.
Maybe he missed it. But if he missed it, he should ask his neighbor from Menlow Park, who even rebranding the dump of malignant content that Facebook was and still is does not help in the sharp decline of Meta's stock. The digital violence against Mladen Dulic just came from that landfill.
Now a little about us.
Life in the era of capitalism in the Balkans (which is a recent phenomenon in our country, which we forget) resembles some bizarre mix of "Squid game", "Handmade's tale" and "Euphoria". If you do not know these references - so much the worse for you. This culture of ours was disgusting enough without the scourge of unregulated social networks, but this last "plug in" seriously threatens to shorten our agony. The problem is that it shortens it for us disproportionately, so it first takes the youngest, most vulnerable and representatives of marginalized groups, and so far I haven't noticed that it was especially felt by the herds that rummage through the previously mentioned waste.
When I say herds, I don't mean honorable pigs, but representatives of the criminal, political and business elite in the Balkans and their servants: they will plow themselves into unconsciousness regardless of the waste in which they live. That is why, in order to survive these several thousand young people (Mladen has just stopped being a "younger adult") people who are cursed by the fact that they were born here and now, it is necessary to urgently introduce some kind of training in the basics of self-defense into the education system mental health from waste and feed.
I suggest that the course be called: Introduction to the Basics of Mental Health Self-Defense.
I would like to emphasize that the reform is urgent, because we are already ten years late with it, and that the subject would be significantly more useful than both religious education and civic education, considering that the first of these two is only a retelling of the dogma of the largest religious community, and the second refers to the rules of living in a fictional society that has as much to do with Serbia as it does with Gondor. In short, we send children to litter with the Bible and the Constitution in their hands, and they need a flamethrower or at least a "users guide" for Facebook and Google.
In the end, Musk is in one administration: the media's need for clicks for the sake of financial survival in the market pumps divisions and aggression in society and is a scourge that we have to try to come to terms with. How - I have no idea.
(Nova.rs)
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