At the opening of the afternoon on media literacy, it immediately hits the spot. On the screen, a young actor – earrings, necklace, nail polish, mustache – tells the audience what today is about: online hate. “Be yourself”, is his conclusion, “take up your space, but also leave a place for the other person.” ignore the haters and don’t hate yourself.
The hall bursts into cheers. Dozens of red cards (dislike) , which were under the seats, go up. “Go on!” a boy yells. And that’s how the audience will react all afternoon when this young man appears on the screen. Because, the children later say when asked: he is gay.
Friday afternoon, in the Maris College in The Hague, there are more than eighty first-graders of the pre-vocational secondary education, primary and senior vocational and mixed learning track. Teenagers, all with make-up, earrings, a single headscarf, colorful hairstyles, braces, tracksuits, beautiful nails. Four actors present and one on screen give a performance about media literacy. The atmosphere is uninhibited, the room restless.
This is the third school where this performance has been given, in collaboration with researchers from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. They observe the reactions of the children. This week is Media Literacy Week – proclaimed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The intention is that the teenagers learn to reflect on the ‘hatred’ that they themselves sometimes get online and the hatred that they themselves give out. The two-hour performance Block or Blessis flashy, with loud music and recognizable teenage situations.
influencers
At the beginning, the children can choose which of the four actors in the room they want to belong to – who each play an online influencer. They sit down with their candidate. They are the ‘followers’ of this influencer, just like on Instagram or TikTok. After each scene or cutscene, they have to put up red or green cards on the screen to give their opinion. They are allowed to switch influencers every twenty minutes.
Only the ‘influencer’ on the big screen, who constantly talks the scenes together, is not physically present. That’s a coincidence – he couldn’t attend the performances. Pupils at other schools reacted slightly less strongly to him, says Esther Rozendaal, associate professor of digital resilience at Erasmus University, afterwards. “They nudged each other and asked ‘is he gay?’ but he was not so booed.”
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Boys just shouldn’t be attracted to boys
Student of Maris College
Terrence, the young black influencer, turns out to be by far the most popular this afternoon. The other three influencers are white girls who talk about “vulnerable” moments they experienced on Instagram or in WhatsApp groups.
The children in the front rows listen with interest. The back four or five rows are not. Several times a boy is sent out of the room by a teacher – one because he incessantly chatters, chatters and looks back, the other because he like-dislike– shreds cards.
At the right time, influencer Terrence shows a WhatsApp group conversation of his friends on the big screen. His mates make fun of him in his absence and joke that he will “be late anyway” because he is “Surinamese”. The jokes get more and more grim. “Boo!” shouts the hall. “That’s racist!” Red cards fly up. Indeed, Terrence says. What do we think of this?, he asks. „fake friends”, someone shouts.
Real reactions
Moments later, real “hate comments” from followers on Instagram are read to the audience. If ten children (out of eighty) have shown the red card, because the reactions go too far for them, the reading will stop, that is the agreement. It starts with: “You are a fake cancer!”. Silence. “You’re a whore for likes.” Nothing. “I will kill you”. A few red cards are going up. Everyone listens. “Go back to your own country!”. More than ten cards are going up. The reading stops.
Later, the leader of the theater company will express her surprise to the audience: “I had a stomachache at the first reactions, but you thought it was completely normal.” Many children nod.
Do the students really think it’s normal to read or write comments with ‘cancer’ or ‘whore’ and death wishes on social media? Afterwards, the actors briefly discuss it with their ‘followers’. “Not really,” says a boy. “But I didn’t want to be the first to show a red card and say something is going too far.” Ah, says the actor. peer pressure? Yes that.
And the violent reactions to the gay actor? “Guys just shouldn’t be attracted to boys,” says one boy.
And, says another boy indifferently: “If someone looks good, you give less hate.” You also hate, says a girl, because then you will get less hate on your messages.
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Bystanders
The answers fit exactly with the results of the research into bystander behavior online by Esther Rozendaal of Erasmus University. “There is a greater chance that people will take action” [iemand verdedigen] if they feel that others in their social environment do the same, expect the same behavior from them and encourage them to do so.”
At the end of the afternoon, the hall empties and the actors, teachers and researchers let off steam. “Wow, fierce reactions,” they say. But they also think that this makes for a meaningful afternoon – especially for the many children in between who took in everything quietly and with interest.