Antisocial Media
In what a authorities describe as a gang-related shooting, someone opened fire at a park on Chicago’s South Side and shot 13 people, including a three year-old boy. In Wired, Ben Austen provides an in-depth look at how social media is fueling gang wars in Chicago: “There are now an estimated 70,000 members in the city, spread out among a mind-boggling 850 cliques, with many of these groupings formed around a couple of street corners or a specific school or park. Young people in these areas are like young people everywhere, using technology to coordinate with their friends and chronicle their every move. But in neighborhoods where shootings are common, the use of online tools has turned hazardous, as gang violence is now openly advertised and instigated online.”