Using social media might turn nice, innocent young women into “mean girls” by instilling a belief in teenagers that “bitching is good,” according to Helen Wright, a leading public school headmistress across the pond.
In a fierce attack against social media sites like Facebook, Wright, headmistress of St. Mary’s Calne in Wiltshire, bemoaned the lack of positive female role models for young ladies, warning that “We are in real danger of cultivating a generation of ‘mean girls’,” who base their friendships on “bitchiness, meanness, cruelty and criticising what someone’s wearing and how they look.”
[quote type=”large” align=”left”] “They’re far more used to defriending friends online rather than befriending them in reality. If it’s possible in just a moment to defriend someone or unfriend them on Facebook, then people say, “Why can’t I do that in real life?” [/quote]
Wright also criticized pop culture feuds among female figures like the ones between Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna, and Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham.
[quote type=”large” align=”left”] “Many young women mistakenly see women like Paris Hilton and her latest BFF [best friend forever] and the cast of The Only Way Is Essex as relevant role models and seek to emulate their behaviour,” she said. [/quote]
According to IBT, former pupils of the 29,694-pound-a-year St. Mary’s include David Cameron’s sister Clare and Jade Jagger, who was famously expelled for covert meetings with a boyfriend.
Do you think Wright has a point? Does social media play a disturbing role in creating a generation of “mean girls?”
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