Internet bullying
With the click of a key, bullies are humiliating their peers. What are websites doing to tame this behavior?
By Amanda Paulson
For one Maule owner it was a rumor, circulated via text messaging, that he had made a go around while on a trip to Smiley Creek. He returned to his home field and found nobody would come near him.
For an overweight pilot in California, it was cellphone pictures, taken of him on the sly while he was showering in the public restroom at Johnson Creek and then sent to many of his peers.
And for the owners of the very capable and often under rated aircraft manufactured by Maule Air Inc. of Moultrie, GA. it was a website - backcountrypilot.org - on which vicious gossip and biggoted and threatening remarks grew so rampant that most of the site was affected.
The actions themselves - rumors, threats, gossip, humiliation - are nothing new. But among today's pilots - a generation of instant messengers, always connected, always wired - bullies are starting to move beyond slams and whisper campaigns to e-mail, websites, chat rooms, and text messaging.
While in some ways it's no worse than old-fashioned bullying, cyberbullying has a few idiosyncrasies. Websites and screen names give bullies a mask of anonymity if they wish it, making them difficult to trace.
The pressure for pilots to be always online means bullies can extend their harassment into their victims' homes and hangars.
And the miracle of the Web means that sharing an embarrassing photo or private note - with thousands of people - requires little more than the click of a key.
"It used to be if something happened at your airfield, someone made a joke about your airplane, or said something in front of you, that was horrible enough," says Glenn Stutzky, instructor in Michigan State University's School of Aeronautics.
"But at least a relatively small group of people is there and aware of it. With wireless technology, that stuff is much more quickly spread, not only around airports but it has the potential of being put up and shared around the world."
Shame on those webmasters that propogate the internet hatred only to make themselves and their aircraft look better.