In Jefferson, Ohio, a 17-year-old high school teen was arrested for threatening Nike via Twitter today. Apparently upset about missing out on one of the random restocks the student tweeted, “”I’m shooting y’all store up tomorrow @ 2:30 @nikecorp” to Nike earlier this week. The local security division for the store called the sheriff’s office and reported the threat. The student is now facing a felony charge of inducing panic. However, the accused maintains that the tweet was a joke and that he wasn’t planning on hurting anybody.
This seems a bit…churlish,myopic, and stupid wouldn’t you say?! The Internet has given everybody a voice, which in many cases, is not always good thing…Let us know what you think about this in the comments below.
Via ABC 5 Cleveland.
There’s a problem with the current generation in that they have not learned words have consequences before they learned the beauty (sarcasm) of anonymous communication. There’s a huge disconnect between words and consequences as a result of social media.
I completely agree. Every word you put out into the Internet is catalogued. The problem is we often have no idea by whom. Words, no matter where, do have power and consequences.
Kind of weird in that you can’t tell the tone of a tweet or text message. Yes, it was probably some kid messing around, but in a world where public mass shootings happen now on the reg, you have to consider every threat a viable one. Really, it’s shoes/sneakers, it’s not that serious to go and do something dumb like this. In the end, they are just material things. Stuff. People are more important.
Completely agree with what everyone else has said; in this age of mass shootings and random violence no threat can be ignored. You can say whatever you want, but what you say may land you in jail or worse.
Kids go through a process of growing up. Really, everyone does especially young adults. Part of learning that words have consequences is saying shit to someone’s face and getting your own face smashed in. There’s an immediate consequence and it’s really not that serious as getting arrested for terroristic threatening. The internet doesn’t give that opportunity to learn. It’s really sad how modern conveniences takes away opportunities to grow. Then again, our parents/grandparents probably thought the same of us.
Social media or not, a threat like that made verbally will still get you jacked up. Some people are crazy out there and you have to believe that they’re as crazy as they say(play) like they are to take the necessary precautions. It’s unfortunate that this happened to the student from a joke standpoint, but he just got made an example of. He’ll probably even deactivate his Twitter after this.