Yet Another Installment of “When Social Media Goes Wrong”

Apparently, the lesson about posting stupid stuff on the Internet and how it can come back to bite you is one we are going to have to revisit again and again, especially now that social media is the n...
Yet Another Installment of “When Social Media Goes Wrong”
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  • Apparently, the lesson about posting stupid stuff on the Internet and how it can come back to bite you is one we are going to have to revisit again and again, especially now that social media is the norm. Whether it’s Rashard Mendenhall and his Twitter follies or GoDaddy’s CEO sharing his elephant slaughter, it’s clear the immediacy of social media is simply not for everyone.

    Remember the UCLA student who didn’t appreciate Asians in the library and the subsequent fallout? Apparently, her lesson only took hold for about, oh, five minutes or so. Just ask Christina Hopkins, an apparent attention whore who recently got kicked off the Oxygen Channel — not just her Bad Girls Club show, either; the network banned Hopkins for life — for a racist rant she brilliantly allowed to be captured on a mobile device’s video recorder.

    Naturally, the video was “leaked” to TMZ, who wasted no time in posting it for all the Internet to see, including a copy on their YouTube page. Before playing the video, viewers should be warned it contains racially insensitive content, including liberal use of a particular word that starts with the letter “N.” Watch it at your own behest:


    And for that misguided stream-of-consciousness, Hopkins now finds herself without “employment,” if that’s what you can call it. Needless to say, she also apologized for her stupidity, saying her stream of verbal diarrhea “wasn’t meant in a derogatory way.” Regardless of her intentions — who knows, maybe she wants to be a female Don Rickles — it’s clear a lot of people have no business being around devices that can immortalize every aspect of a person’s behavior with the click of an “upload” button. Nor should they trusted to use services like Twitter and YouTube, either. While it would deny the rest of us access to their abject stupidity, it would also save the world from ever being exposed to folks like Hopkins.

    But then again, considering the shocking appeal of the shows that would stoop to give people like Hopkins a showcase, maybe this is the kind of content we want, if, for nothing else, so we can run to the comments section of a TMZ.com in order to revel in the mistakes and poor behavior of others. Unfortunately for those of you who long for these kinds of mishaps, this incident did not continue on Hopkins’ Twitter page. Fear not, however: Now that this story is making the rounds, that could quickly change, reigniting the dumpster fire that is Christina Hopkins’ pathetic racist rant and the resulting reactions.

    As for Hopkins, at least she issued a sincere apology, but that didn’t seem to buy her any relief, especially from her previous show mates.

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