Final Blog Post

Houston Astro's Game (Facebook.com)

 Bullies or Misunderstood

By: Tempestt Flaggs 

Context 

        On April 19, 2023, the Houston Astros played the Toronto Blues Jays at Minute Maid Park Located in Houston Texas. As aspected the park was packed and full of fans. Some will remember this day as a good day they enjoyed at the park. But three particular women will remember this sporting event as the game that made them viral.

 Story Behind the Viral Video

        Jackie who is also known on Tik Tok as jackielabinita is one of the many people who attended this game. She is what most would consider an influencer that had a pretty decent following at the time of the game. As you can imagine she came to the game dressed for the game dressed for the occasion. Supporting the Houston Astros by wearing one of their jerseys. Like any woman in her 20's she was on the lookout for the perfect photo opportunities. So she could share her Houston Astro-inspired look with her following. That was when she stumbled into her student section and found some open seating that she thought would be perfect for the occasion. Most of the girlies know that the best photos come from recording videos off your phone so that you can review them later in slow motion and find your perfect shot. (FYI for the old man reading this) Jackie sat down in the open seat and had he husband start taking videos of her. 

        During this time two other women name Alondra and Liz were in view of the camera and they were not too happy about this. So in response, they began to make faces at the camera as well as shoot the finger. They continuously leaned over and whispered things to each other bursting out with laughter. All the while Jackie could hear them and all of their commotion. Slowly Jackie realize they were potentially taunting her. Making her uncomfortable and self-conscious. So she ended her photo shoot and continued on with her day. 

        Later after reviewing her footage, she realized just how vindictive the two women were toward her. At one point Liz started recording her yelling, "Lame."So two days later on April 22, 2023, she decided to take to social media about her experience. She decided to post clips of her video on Tik Tok. At the beginning of the video she included the statement, "Watch my confidence disappear after these random girls make fun of me taking pics." 

Video Aftermath 

        The TikTok video ended up blowing up bringing a large amount of hate toward Liz and Alondra. People went as far as finding a real estate company that they suspected Liz worked at and left her hundred of bad reviews. They sent them death threats and send them and their families hateful messages. This empowered them to make their own video's that they Posted to TikTok as well under the user name lizandalondra419. 

        In this video, they made the claim that they were being wrongfully bullied and that the incident did not happen the way Jackine made it seem. They accused 

Jackie of using her marketing knowledge and her TikTok following to her advantage. Making them vulnerable to threats because people had been leaking the addresses. They also claimed that they had even reached out to Jackie in an attempt to apologize and explain their side of the story.

 

        Their response video gave them brownie points with very few people. Others still had a question and did not believe the story of events. This attempt to have others hear their side of the story made things worse because they then began to be accused of my narcissism and gaslighting the victim. 

        Eventually, the three women were able to talk. Allowing Liz and Alondra to apologize to Jackie. She accepted and made a TikTok video reporting that she forgave them, but was not going to take the video down, but did turn the comments off. But this saga does not end there, but it will for this blog. If I continued we would be here all day.

Methods

        To gather the data I went straight to the original video that was posted on TikTok. Here I read through many comments to see the different views people had on the topic. Choosing comments was difficult because there was a lot of inappropriate language. But overall I found the comments that show the different ways of approaches. I even watched several review videos that all had the same opinions as many others that were in the original comments. Most people agree that Liz and Alondra were bullies as well as spread information about where they go to school and possible workplaces. When Alondra and Liz made their response video I decided to look into it immediately especially their comment section. There were a couple people giving them the benefit of the doubt but very little. The rest of the commenters continue to slander them. They basically made the situation worse for themselves. Like the original video, people made their own videos expressing their own opinions on the matter. Still feeding into the view that the two women deserve what they are getting.    

Data Analysis 

Screenshots from the comment section of the original video. (Taken by Tempestt Flaggs)

Screenshots from the comment section of the response video. (Taken by Tempestt Flaggs)

        From the data I collected you can see the amount of hate that Alondra and Liz are receiving. People are calling them jealous, self-conscious, and so much more. Most people sided with Jackie's original video. But some commenters brought up the fact that influencers tend to take pictures and videos not caring about whos around and who may be uncomfortable about it. People with these opinions got fewer likes and less interaction. It appears that the masses only want to interact with comments that have a  negative take on the women. This is what tends to happen in other videos that consist of exposing other people. It appears that people dedicate themselves to situations that involve drama. Million of people liked commented and shared these videos. But when someone goes missing or need help there is way less interaction with those kinds of post. People feed off of negative posts more than they resonate with positive posts. It is like we enjoy seeing people suffer as much as possible, it's not about justice anymore. 

Lit Review

        Liz and Alondras' actions were wrong and Jackie had every right to post her video and expose them. The reaction of the masses is very alarming because it shows that people tend to gravitate toward negative posts. Liz and Alondra are defiantly bullies but so are all the people who are interacting with the post negatively. Why is it okay for others to do it? Is it because they are doing it to defend Jackie? This like this happens every day. For example, I am on a local Seguin critic page that is very active. Many people leave good reviews about local restaurants that either get a couple of like or none. But about a week ago a woman posted he bad experience at a local restaurant and sparked up the whole town. Everyone had something to say about the matter and most of the people did not agree with her. Her post even gained the interest of San Antonio knew outlets bringing negative light to the restaurant. These news outlets are never in Seguin supporting and talking about the many small businesses we have here. The admin of the group even admitted that the negative post has increased the number of members in the group. These observations are just two out of the many scenarios that prove that most people feed off drama. It has become a form of entertainment for the American people. This came about when cancel culture became fun to do. 

 Conclusion 

        At the end of the day, these women were probably bullies who just got caught in the act. But, do you think that they deserve death threats and their privacy breached? NO! As social media consumers, we need to understand the dangers of social media. I am pretty sure Jackie did not have the intention of putting these women's lives at risk, she was probably just trying to bring attention to what happened to her and how she felt about the matter. But could she have blurred Alondra and Liz's faces out? Possibly. All three women could have gone about this issue better. It used to be effective to expose people and businesses on social media. But now we have many people that will react to seeing something like this and take it way too far. I am all about accountability and justice, but death threats and exposing people's home addresses are way too far. Do these women deserve to die because of their actions? Absolutely not. Cancel/exposing culture is becoming more and more dangerous for the people involved. Ruining people's lives had become American new favorite pastime. I will leave with one more ending thought, what if you or someone close to you is exposed for something they have done. Would you be okay with millions of people targeting them?