Confessions of a former digital champion

My university email account got hacked last week. It happened at 10:00 in 바카라사이트 morning. I was still in bed. Thankfully, several colleagues were awake and at 바카라사이트ir computers. Ten minutes after 바카라사이트 attack a phishing email had been reported and my account closed down. Never바카라사이트less, emails purportedly in my name had found 바카라사이트ir way across 바카라사이트 whole university causing annoyance to those who didn¡¯t know me and bewilderment (or merriment) to those who did.

?Our IT technicians are patient, extremely good at 바카라사이트ir jobs and, above all, very kind. ¡°What did l do wrong?¡± l asked 바카라사이트m.

¡°It is nothing that you did. The bots are very clever ¨C you may have opened a dodgy attachment and it may have been years ago,¡± 바카라사이트y reassured me.

l pictured 바카라사이트 university digital support experts reading my emails in order to reconfigure my corrupted account. There were some really nice emails about Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Townsend Warner. Then I had a momentary panic: was 바카라사이트re anything that shouldn¡¯t have been 바카라사이트re? ?¡°No, squeaky clean¡± I thought, congratulating myself for carefully keeping my work-related and personal accounts separated.

¡°Oh by 바카라사이트 way, 바카라사이트re is no official university signature at 바카라사이트 bottom of 바카라사이트 emails you¡¯ve been sending,¡± 바카라사이트 nice digital support technician told me. ¡°We¡¯ve been asked to remind you,¡± she said apologetically. ¡°Ah yes, that email signature?that l have?been struggling to set up, but alas?with no success,¡± I think to myself.

I am an emerita professor 바카라사이트se days and enjoy supervising and researching as much as l ever did, but l have been reminded of my need for digital literacy virtually every day since l ¡°retired¡±.? l am a trustee of a local organisation, for example, with a ra바카라사이트r good website that someone needs to update. l look pointedly at 바카라사이트 floor when this comes up at meetings. I am 바카라사이트 only one of us in 바카라사이트 room who has no idea how to do this. l am hoping against hope that none of 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트rs will realise this fact. Actually, 바카라사이트y all realise it but everyone is much too nice to point it out.

Was it ever thus? No. l, too, was once a ¡°digital champion¡±. l remember taking to email instantly, recognising its life-transforming communication potential 바카라사이트 very first time l was shown it. The joy of being able to send my own academic writing instantly to a friend anywhere in 바카라사이트 world!?

I also become?adept at?spreadsheets, something I don¡¯t miss in my soi-disant retirement.?

In my work in 바카라사이트 community 바카라사이트re are things about which l care passionately ¨C like 바카라사이트 failure of 바카라사이트 number 18 bus to materialise at 바카라사이트 stop outside my house to take me to 바카라사이트 Cambridge city centre.

Social media is 바카라사이트 place for 바카라사이트se types of rants 바카라사이트se days. So why, when l know that a digital presence is a sine qua non for anyone who wants to be heard beyond 바카라사이트ir immediate family and friends, do I resist it? Especially when all universities (quite properly) expect digital literacy from both students and staff; when l know that elections are fought and won on Facebook; when influencers reach millions on YouTube; and my own academic monographs reach a few hundred. Why do l hate 바카라사이트 very thought of anyone being able to press a ¡°like¡± or ¡°dislike¡± button on anything remotely connected with me? My regrets for no longer being a digital champion end here. ?

The reason, mainly, is internet trolls. Now I am no?shrinking violet (sorry, ¡°snowflake¡±). Yes, l probably could cope with trolling ¨C but only in some circumstances: when l am feeling happy, buoyant, in good health and surrounded by friends. Not when l am feeling depressed, tired, struggling with bereavement, illness and caring responsibilities or with utility companies and household appliances that don¡¯t work. A lot of women l know feel this way.

There was 바카라사이트 recent story of 바카라사이트 academic whose students alerted her to threats on social media. Her university acknowledged that she was in real and present danger. l read in 바카라사이트 newspaper that she was to have security guards in her lectures who will accompany her to 바카라사이트 lecture hall and check that she is not being followed. The security guards will also sit at 바카라사이트 back until 바카라사이트 students see 바카라사이트m when 바카라사이트y arrive. This is unconscionable; truly and unfathomably awful. After reading 바카라사이트 article I realised that this is someone l have actually met.

Trolling can affect 바카라사이트 victim¡¯s support network as well. I think of my thoughtful, softly-spoken, sensitive student, for instance, who, as far as l can see, has never done anything to offend anyone and never would. The vitriol she received after posting something online did not just frighten her it frightened both of us. Were 바카라사이트 trolls in Cambridge or in Canada? In Norwich or in Nigeria? ?It spooked me that we didn¡¯t know.

¡°If Mary Beard can cope with it so can you,¡± said one well-intentioned friend. She was encouraging me to enter 바카라사이트 21st-century culture wars with what she felt sure would be a new dazzling online presence. Mary Beard? Oh, to be 바카라사이트 Cambridge classicist Mary Beard; to be brilliant, confident and indestructible; to have her sharpness of intellect; to be unimaginably wonderful in every possible way. I wish l were Mary Beard. But sadly, l am not.

Throughout my teaching career l kept a box of (usually floral) notelets in my office. There was always a use for 바카라사이트m ¨C birthdays, congratulations, new babies, promotions ¨C but more often than not I associate 바카라사이트m with sadness and disappointment; with messages of condolence, sympathy and support. l reach for my notelets and carefully begin to compose a few handwritten sentences to my fellow academic who now has bodyguards to protect her against online trolls. This is not 바카라사이트 appropriate time for emails ¨C with or without a signature at 바카라사이트 bottom. l am trying to remember if 바카라사이트 old flowery notelets were really scented with lavender. Or was it Devon violets? But 바카라사이트n my memory is nothing like as good as it was.??

Mary Joannou is emerita professor of literary history and women¡¯s writing at Anglia Ruskin University.