Communication Breakdown, It's Always The Same. I'm Having a Nervous Breakdown, Drive Me Insane...11/14/2018 Digital communication breakdowns are a consistent problem in the digital age. The lack of consideration of the newly increased size of the average person's audience has negatively affected the lives of many social media users. Social media users tend to forget the whole world is watching and have a habit of posting things they would only share with close friends. The increased anonymity on social media platforms such as Twitter, can cause users to rapidly fireback at their responders without knowing who is really on the receiving end. This is exactly what happened to short-lived NASA intern, Naomi H.
Naomi H. was more than excited when she was accepted into the NASA internship program. Naomi went straight to Twitter to let everyone know how proud she was with this tweet - "EVERYONE SHUT THE F**K UP, I GOT ACCEPTED FOR A NASA INTERNSHIP." One Twitter user simply responded to her tweet with "Language." Naomi, not knowing who exactly the old man telling her to watch her language was, responded with "Suck my d**k and balls I'm working at NASA." Noami must not have known who the old man was as he responded "And I am on the National Space Counsel that overseas NASA." The older gentleman who responded to Noami was Homer Hickam. Hickam is a former NASA engineer and author of the 1998 New York Times Best Seller "Rocket Boys." While Hickam was understanding of the situation, Naomi's response to Hickam caused her to lose her internship with NASA. Naomi could have easily avoided this misunderstanding by simply searching for Hickam on Google. One Twitter user responded to Naomi by asking how she could even be awarded the internship without knowing who Homer Hickam was. Did Naomi even deserve to work for NASA when she did not even recognize one of the most famous former NASA engineers? Was Naomi just too excited to about the internship to notice? Twitter and other social media formats are so fast paced that this could be the case. Naomi could have only payed attention to the response and not the author. This situation shows how one's personal actions on the internet can affect their work life. Naomi made an honest mistake by acting without thinking and it cost her the NASA internship. The consequences were necessary as NASA must be careful of their public image and Naomi would not have been a positive influence on the NASA brand. It is important to make sure that students do not have this sort of impact on the Nashville Shakespeare Festival. Students that are working on the project need to be mindful of the way they present themselves publicly as it affects how Belmont and the Nashville Shakespeare Festival are portrayed.
2 Comments
Sam Molli
11/14/2018 01:14:35 pm
I remember this happening, definitely a great example of some digital communication breakdown! I never thought about how fast-paced social media is, however, that was a good point you made about her possibly only looking at the tweet rather than the author. Nonetheless, the internet is forever and she can't really take that away anymore. I feel like this is also an example of an unfortunate way to learn internet etiquette.
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Allyssa Marino
11/14/2018 01:23:39 pm
I also remember this happening! Personally, I was shocked that she was brave enough to tweet it in the first place because growing up I was always advised to consider everything you post because future employers would be watching. I totally agree that the fast paced nature of twitter played a role here and Naomi should think more carefully about what she posts next time.
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