We are participating in a community project, which largely depends on communication, mutual respect and understanding.
The guilty verdict has come in on the Tyler Clementi case, and we want you to read this article and write a reactionary post (submitted as a comment to this post).
For consideration:
- How do you feel about the verdict for this case after reading the article? Do you feel differently?
- Considering you own communication style and methods, how do you relate to this story?
- What is your hope for young people moving forward in this society with regards to each other and the ways that they engage and communicate?
- What would you tell incoming freshmen about relating to new people, dealing with roommates and new situations and potentially people who strongly disagree with you and your choices?
For more info on the verdict: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/nyregion/defendant-guilty-in-rutgers-case.html.
2. At least 2 entries for your sketchbook.
Your actual sketchbook may be in the display case, if so work in some other medium (photography, draw on other paper) and insert it into your sketchbook next week.
Though this guy did commit suicide, I feel like the verdict was fair. He may have had problems before the case and may have had suicidal thoughts. I think he just had problems overall, and the webcam may have just struck his last nerve and made him take it to the extreme. Knowing his history, it seems like he struggled with depression his whole life. Ravi seemed like he had this reputation to keep up as "the bro." So in the end, I think the verdict was fair.
ReplyDeleteI relate to this story because at Identity Blueprint, we have to make sure to always be talking to the girls. We cannot just fulfill our duties in order to receive a grade. We should be aware of what is going on in their lives. All these little problems Clementi had lead up to his suicide. Ravi probably wasn't unaware of what his little pranks could lead up to. We should be careful with what we say and how we act and try to help the girls and somewhat be a support system to them. Unfortunately, the only support system Clement seemed to have was Hannah and certain websites.
I hope for younger kids in the future to learn that messing with people's personal lives, especially their sexuality, isn't a joke. It is important to engage with each other and learn more about each other instead of jumping to conclusions or being hesitant. Ask questions instead of getting to know someone by messing with someone's personal life.
I would tell incoming freshmen that it is okay to disagree, but it's not okay to try to change someone. These are people's personal life choices, and in life, you have to learn to not disagree so strongly. Everyone is different. You will learn that especially when you enter college. Don't judge but try to learn.
The verdict was fair, but leaning towards Ravi should’ve been punished further, although it would be justified if he served several years more in prison. Despite the controversy, Clementi had his own problems to deal with and the spying pushed him to the edge. Ravi was the person to do just that. And it was his fault. He would be living with this guilt the rest of his life.
ReplyDeleteThis story is relative to my experience shifting from a teenager to an adult. It has been clear that words and action should be selective in manners such as this. In Identity Blueprint, words should always be carefully chosen especially when speaking to the girls. Yes, it is great to speak freely with them, but also wise to restrict yourself from becoming too “loose.”
We enter an age where smartphones and communication has been integrated into part of our lives that dismissing it is ignorant and in truth, quite stupid. However, in any communication format, whether in person or by phone or texting, be respectful. Unless it’s your friends. Those you can pour your hearts out.
Incoming freshmen should learn to adapt to their new surroundings. This is no longer high school or trade school, and if he/she wants the authority of an adult, he/she must be one first and abide by it. College is a place to meet new people and do stupid mistakes, so long as they aren’t life threatening to the person or other people (although this is highly unlikely). Disagreements always occur, whether with roommates, friends, people you like, people you don’t like, professors, etc. Have the audacity to be responsible for the situation if it is your fault, and if the occasion calls for it, depending on who the dispute is concerned with, suck it up. If not, you’ll just get fired.
The verdict seems to be fair, but it would have been smarter on Ravi's part to have accepted one of the two initial offers that involved no jail time, but, of course, his pride got in the way. I don't believe the decision to stop living is something that crops up over night, or even in the course of a few days. I believe this must have been a recurring thought, but this last incident was far worse than anything Clementi had experienced before and pushed him to his limit.
ReplyDeleteI think too much of our everyday lives is being publicized and every time anything happens, people pull out their iPhones to Instagram it. They Tweet their every thought and condense their whole selves into a box on Facebook as the people they hope to be. But this is the way we communicate today and you have to be a part of it in order to keep up, as long as you remember that they're aspects of your world, not the entirety of it.
The verdict given to Ravi was acceptable, but its amazing to see how he shows no guilt and how people describe his attitude toward life after the incident. A kid with a personality like that and a tendency to spy on others has a clear lack of self confidence. It's within a teenager's attitude to be stubborn but not when it comes to the law and much more than that, when it involves other relatives (the possibility of deportation of his family). It would be much more acceptable if he would have accepted the second offer (no jail time but 600 hours of community service).
ReplyDeleteI do not relate personally with this story because fortunately, this type of invasion of privacy has never happened to me or my surroundings. I come from a very tolerant home and culture, so I've grown up accepting people for who they are and perhaps more importantly, not intruding in anybody else's life. But the frustration that Tyler felt I guess can be relatable to anyone who is afraid of exposing their sexual preferences because of the possibility of being bullied.
It can be shocking for someone who has been raised in a conservative environment, but people nowadays has to have tolerance and has to be conscient of the fact that is someone is gay, it doesn't mean he or she is any different or harmful. Its healthier for everybody not to mind about that, that way relationships among roommates, co-workers, classmates, friends, etc., can be more transparent.
The key for upcoming freshmen is to be tolerant with everyone's opinions and decisions. Leave sexual preferences aside, and if there is something really bothering, there is always a space to talk, violence or suicide is never the answer. If someone strongly disagrees with your way of being the smartest solution is to avoid those types of people, change dorms, or switch classes, sometimes the best thing is just simply to be far away from those who could harm you. One should never be uncomfortable with its way of being or thinking.
I've been reading and assimilating for more than two hours and I feel that the case is a very difficult one to take a stand on. The truth is that our lives are very far-removed from the grim realities of the law. Most people talk flippantly about various communities and races and express opinions that they would ordinarily not, if aware of an audience.
ReplyDeleteThat Tyler Clementi had his own problems even before moving to college is pretty evident. That Dharun Ravi was an immature, inconsiderate and a seemingly 'image-conscious' teenager comes across from his messages and interactions. I feel that although recording and spying on a roommate is excessive, many teenagers spread rumors and behave unkind to their peers, making brash statements and acting unfeelingly. It doesn't appear that Ravi was anti-gay or discriminatory. He was just an awful teenager that lacked the maturity and sense to act thoughtfully and has paid a heavy price for it. Not only will he live with the guilt of having had a hand in his roommates suicide, he will also pay for it with his life. Nobody persecuted in a case this sensitive will ever recover from it-the repercussions are bound to follow him as long as he lives, in prison and free. The limited interaction between the two boys makes it evident that Dharun Ravi could have had no way of knowing how depressed and dejected his roommate had been with school and his recent revelation to his parents regarding his sexuality. Tyler, on the other hand may have spoken to Ravi about his apprehensions had they spoken to one another. There are so many different ways that the situation could have gone had any of the various circumstances been even remotely different.
For us, what we can learn is to be careful with our words and actions as well as our perceptions of issues regarding, race, gender, sexuality, and the like.
I felt that the verdict for the case was just, and convicting Dharun Ravi was a sound judgement, considering there was sufficient evidence to prove that he had the intention of belittling and humiliating his roommate with peers over the internet. He may have not held homophobic beliefs himself, but these qualities were sure broached by mass teenage conformism on social media. Although he cannot directly be held solely responsible for the death of Tyler Clementi, he certainly had a great influence over the timid, dismissive, insecure boy's decision to take his own life.
ReplyDeleteBecause internet access is so frequent, easily accessible and a large part of our lives, it is hard to determine what is appropriate to put online, in terms of privacy. The youth today thinks of the internet as nothing other than almost another form of word of mouth, and this comes with major repercussions. Unlike the word of mouth, all information posted on the internet is permanently traceable. Therefore in my communication methods over the internet, I am sure to be extra careful on determining what is dubbed private.
Teens generally relate through mutual hatred, so they exaggerate words to express opinions they don't actually hold in their moral code; they see it as a form of humor. Moving forward, they should try to act against the norm and maintain respect for all types of people.
I would suggest to upcoming freshman to always be open minded, even when it seems impossible, because we all are raised in different situations and hold different opinions. They need to respect these differences and not try to force opinions on others.
To some it is the best four years of their lives and to others just another part of life. The College experience is whatever the student makes of his time. In an institution where legal laws protect individuals is where the controversy of the Tyler Clementi case began. In The New Yorker the article, “The Story of a Suicide” explained in detail Dharuns case that revolved around the death of Tyler Clementi. Dharun Ravi was found Guilty in multiple counts, but for the this case it was best for him not to spend time in jail.
ReplyDeleteFor a person to psychologically believe that he had to end his life, is devastating. I believe in anti-bullying and this situation should had been treated as such. Although I understand that it may have been overlooked as a college experiential mischief, people still take offense to an invasion of privacy. An act of spying should not have been a reason to go on trial but Tyler was struggling with this and possibly other personal problems before. People are sensitive and should always be kept in mind that many have their customs. It has always been ideal to respect someone else, and society was just reminded of the consequences.
Ravi used internet and violated clementi's right of portrait and right of privacy which indirectly leads to the result of clementi's suicide. The verdict is different from others based on the case included internet explosure, teen sex and teen gay these aspects. I feel like Ravi used camera secretly to record clementi's private time in room is largely based on curiosity rather than on discrimination. Beacuse Ravi and clementi rarely had any conversation, the post on the tweeter and facebook created misunderstnding and bias between them. When people tweet or post something on the internet, they tend to exaggerate and make things appeared more dramatically, especially teenagers. I personally donnot often use tweeter or facebook. I like using phone or web chating with my friends because I feel sometimes what we tweet or write on the internet is based on the manner of what we want others to think of ourselves. We like to post things in a way that shows what kind of person we want to be perceived. Because of that fantacy and exaggeration, these post and tweet are usually somehow away from the truth and can easily created misunderstanding. Internet definitely changed the way people conmunicated. Nowadays, people spent at least one or two hours updating their status and posting new things in their life. We are used to open facebook wedsite when the first minute we sit in front of the computer. The way we conmunicate on the internet is different from the way in a real world social interaction. I think young people should practice their way to conmunicate with people in the real world rather than competeing with each others how active they are in facebook. In this case, Ravi and clementi never really had a formal conversation about their misunderstanding towards eachother. When clementi asked RA for help, I think in stead of talking to them seprately, RA should talk to them together and create the chance of letting them talk to each other and find a solution together. Also the university dorm policy should clearly list the privacy problem in a room and situation that violate privacy. Freshmen year may be the toughest year in college. This is time when lots of changes happened and these changes can easily cause confusion and upset. This is the time we really need to conmmunicate and find out solution together. I think when we move into a new dorm and have new roomates, it is better to set up some rules in the dorm and excape the situation of complaining about roomates behind their back and gossiping roomates on the facebook which will enventually caused fight or even things that happened in this article.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article, I felt that Ravi did not expect this happening when he posted on twitter about his roommate. Ravi didnt have any intention to lead Tyler Clementi to death. I think this whole situation started from a teenager's little curiosity about Clementi's portrait. I know some people who talk about their roommates behind their back just because to make one subject to talk with their friends. Some students live with foreign students and they just make fun of them with the reason that they act differently or different culture reason. Some of them talk behind their roommates' back to their friends even in front of their roommates using different language. Most teenagers get interested in seeing other teenagers when they think they are different from them. Also become very curious about others when they decided that they are actually different. In this case, Ravi became curious about Clementi's portraits so that he recored on webcam. Ravi's behavior can be seen as one of teenagers' characteristics, but he had to go to trial because of Clementi's death after his violence toward his portrait.
ReplyDeleteI know the similar case which actually happened at my high school. A sophomore girl was having a sex with a junior boy in his dorm not knowing that there were twelve boys hiding in his closet looking at their sex. Also there was a webcam recording everything. Boys were caught and this became a huge issue at my school. Everyone's talking about her and students who don't know her, called her a 'slut'. I was a friend with her and I know how much she suffered from this and she thought of suicide so many times, but decided not to. She was so generous enough to forgive the boys at the end because she knows that this whole started from their curiosities and they had no intention to lead her reputation down. Some of the boys got kicked out from the school, and some got suspended. If she decided to commit suicidei, then the boys also were siting in the courthouse and went through the same steps that Ravi did. I think what Ravi did was part of the reason of Clementi's death but it cannot be seen that it is all of Ravi's fault.
I am sure many of us could easily related to this story of how cyber world has been taking over our lives. Most of individuals these days are connected to technology and Internet such as facebook, twitter, instragram etc. It is now a way to keep up with people around you. People updates their life on the Internet page while others follows what posted to keep up. Those who disconnected seem odds to the rest of us. I think we are losing the ability to interact with each other when we can find everything on the Internet, like how Clementi and Ravi learnt about each other through twitter or posted comments.
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for Ravi that his life wouldn’t be the same after this; on the other hand I think he deserves to be punished for what he had done. I hope for young people to respect others privacy. Don’t easily judge people but get to know them first. It is also important to be careful and conscious on what to post on the Internet because what has been posted will remain there.
I find this story very interesting and sad. The article is basically about an invasion of privacy, and there are so many private conversations and other things that were able to be dug up in order to write this article. They have Ravi’s password even from his computer. I find it scary that so much is recorded, it makes me think that nothing no the computer is private rather it is public very public!
ReplyDeleteI thought this article did a great job of showing many angles to the story rather than taking the easy route with one bad guy and one good. The article shows that things were not exactly black and white and the outcome was far from the intentions which lead to it.
I think it’s great though that this story did get so much attention though, because it helped raise awareness for the it gets better project and gay tolerance and acceptance. “President Barack Obama taped an It Gets Better message, referring to
“Several young people who were bullied and taunted for being gay and who ultimately took
Their own lives.” This is a quote from the article displaying that even the president got involved as a result of this sad situation.
As far as the verdict goes I think it is fair. What Ravi did was terrible but they showed that it wasn’t his intention to drive him to suicide. I think it is only fair to charge him on what he actually did not the unforeseen effects of is crime.
First of all, I would like to start by stating that I feel like this issue is of particular relevance to college kids like us. When I was placed with a roommate, I had no expectations of how our relationship would develop and was basically only concerned by her level of cleanliness and respect towards me. The situation went along smoothly and we have never had any problems. However, once you start to think about it, the whole concept of having a roommate is crazy. In Europe, most colleges provide single dorms and no other options. I agree with this, there are people I have met my whole life that I wouldn’t be able to live with, let along do it for a whole year or even more. A roommate is a person one has never met, never seen before, and that is going to invade your personal space drastically. This is crazy!
ReplyDeleteI think that everyone is entitled to do whatever they want with their personal space and that no one should have to explain what goes on in their private rooms, with their own private partners. However, it is important to highlight that this was a shared room and that automatically transforms it into an impersonal space, and so it should be treated at such. The fact that you are sharing the room makes it a public as a space you could have been sharing with ten other people, so basically, I consider it quite reckless that someone would want to engage in extremely personal activities in a space that is not entirely their own. As a piece of advice for incoming freshman, I would suggest that you understand that the room is not entirely your own. That said, there was no need for Raavi to do the whole webcam situation. Evidently, this was a case of “I’m so cool, look at me.” This is immature and stupid; however, the fact that it’s a small mistake does not mean that it doesn’t have huge repercussions. Most of the people that commit crimes all have reasons for doing so: dysfunctional families, violent backgrounds, abuse, drugs etc. This does not make them innocent. It’s obvious that no one commits a crime out of pure spontaneity, so, I agree with the veredict.
How do you feel about the verdict for this case after reading the article? Do you feel differently?
ReplyDeleteConsidering you own communication style and methods, how do you relate to this story?
What is your hope for young people moving forward in this society with regards to each other and the ways that they engage and communicate?
What would you tell incoming freshmen about relating to new people, dealing with roommates and new situations and potentially people who strongly disagree with you and your choices?
I believe Ravi deserved to be punished for invasion of privacy. I have been bullied before and I believe that it is a very delicate problem. Bullying has been part of my childhood and I have always tried to find ways to deal with it. I think it is healthy for there to be support groups, where people who have suffered bullying can find support and understanding in others who have also been mistreated. I think that those support groups should be more obvious to spot so that people in distress can easily find a group they can relate to, and at the same time, find a solution to the problem as quickly as possible. I believe that when sharing a room with someone else, you have to be very careful about what you want do. Even if you trust your roommate always take into account that your private space is not completely private when you are in the dorms, and therefore you should be careful with your actions. If I am surrounded by people who disagree with my way of life and my sexuality I would definitely seek for support in groups or try and change environments as soon as possible before it takes a toll in my life.
This article tells us about how careful we have to be when using different means of communication. We don't realize that everything we do via Internet is actually recorded somewhere around. We don't realize that we do actually put a lot of information of ourselves out there. We are constantly saying and writing things down that we may sometime regret, however we don’t really consider at that moment. We are not conscious of that. And I think Ravi wasn’t either.
ReplyDeleteI consider that this article is a difficult subject to take a stance on. I think that both of them didn’t really realize the gravity of the situation. They didn’t even consider that things would become so serious. This is a very delicate issue in where I cannot say that one kid was right or wrong. There are many things to consider and it’s clear that they just didn’t think about what they were doing. They just did it. I feel that Tyler was a kid that had his own problems already regarding this issue and other issues in his life. I think that considering taking your life is not just something you think of. He couldn’t tolerate his problems any more and Ravi made it even worse. He was the last contributor to Tyler’s awful decision in an extremely bad timing. And this makes Ravi even guiltier. He was an immature kid with immature actions thinking that there would be no consequences after his behavior. I would recommend incoming freshman that are willing to share a room to communicate with their roommates. There is nothing better than telling each other how they feel about certain things, so everything can be clear before starting to live with someone that you don’t know.
I feel that Dharun Ravi's actions in this case were disturbing and inexcusable and constitute criminal behavior. Although I don't believe that Ravi intended for his roommate to commit suicide, his behavior shows that he saw Clementi as a mere prop for entertainment and not a person. Although he might not consider himself prejudice, to do something so cruel to another human being for the mere purpose of entertainment and self promotion shows that you view that person as subhuman and do not consider them a living, breathing, feeling person. I agree with the verdict in this case because I believe that the root of Tyler Clementi's decision to kill himself was the constant affirmation of his peers that he did not deserve to live. I hope that this case will set a precedent on how issues of abuse and prejudice are dealt with in society
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