Editorials

What Annoyed the Internet Last Week?

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4 February 2019

By Bronwen

You may not have heard the name Steven Pruitt before but there’s a good chance you couldn’t have passed your A-levels without him. 

Priutt is responsible for an entire third of Wikipedia content and has written 35,000 original articles and made nearly 3 million edits to existing ones. It would be fair to say that he is truly the backbone of this society.

You’d think that this man would be treated only as a legend and hero for providing information for millions of students, researchers and people who are simply just curious about something. However, in the most unexpected and unnecessary attack since the Gatwick drone, Twitter user Jennifer Medina posted a series of tweets slating Priutt over his looks.

https://twitter.com/jenniferjmedina/status/1089810433232568320

In total, Medina posted 17 tweets all attacking Priutt’s appearance.

https://twitter.com/jenniferjmedina/status/1089813345950064641

It’s bad enough to go after anybody’s appearance, but the appearance of a man who has dedicated thousands of hours giving us free info? 

Well the Internet is having none of it.

Perhaps people might believe this is just another mean tweet on a website that is full of mean tweets. Why did this one particular mean ‘joke’ annoy us all so much last week?

We’re becoming more and more aware of the effects of bullying in person and online. It’s reassuring to see people stand up for someone who has been so needlessly attacked online. Though Medina reported receiving some death threats and insults about her own appearance, most of the replies to her were civil and simply pointed out how heartless her words were.

Even the teachers chimed in so point out just how juvenile she had been. 

This one was a bit harsher but plausible. Why are her feelings against this guy strong enough to justify 17 consecutive mean tweets?

Medina even started to attack Wikipedia itself. 

https://twitter.com/jenniferjmedina/status/1089828714328850432

Surely she’s the only person (aside from high school teachers) who has beef with a site that literally gives us free knowledge.

In an odd sort of way, this story is actually quite heart warming. The entire Internet came together to tell off someone for being mean. It almost restores our faith in humanity.

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