YES! For Teachers P.O. Box 10818 Bainbridge Island, WA 98110-0818 (206) 842-0216 yesmagazine.org/for-teachers facebook.com/YES-For-Teachers twitter.com/yesforteachers WRITING LESSON DIGITAL EMPATHY The YES! online article How the Real Teens Behind ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ Are Bringing Empathy to the Internet by Christopher Zumski Finke is a story about the now-millions strong Nerdfighter movement and its dedication to “increase awesome and decrease world suck.” Finke shares how the first-ever, safe, inclusive Internet community mobilizes acts of kindness and empathy toward others. Students will use Christopher Zumski Finke’s article to write about where they find inspiration for making this world a better (less suckier) place. Part 1: The Article “How the Real Teens Behind ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ Are Bringing Empathy to the Internet” Part 2: The Writing Prompt Part 3: Writing Guidelines Part 4: Evaluation Rubric Part 5: Sample Essays “Combating the World Suck of Baseball Tryouts” by Bowie Shreiber, Grade 7 “The Literal Heart Sustains an Ailing Body” by Ally S., Grade 11 “The Internet: A Beautiful Place to Be a Harbinger of Awesome” by Shannon Hickey, Burmingham-Southern College “Anita and Tavi’s New Curriculum” by Tori Gardner, Grade 10 Writing Lessons :: Digital Empathy Writing Lessons :: Digital Empathy 1 Part 1: The Article How the Real Teens Behind “The Fault in Our Stars” Are Bringing Empathy to the Internet They call themselves “nerdfighters”—and they’re unlike any movement you’ve seen before. An image from The Fault in Our Stars. Photo courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox. By Christopher Zumski Finke Reprinted from YES! online, June 6, 2014 “I’ m p r o u d t o b e a N e r d f I g h t e r time) and anticipation for the film belie not in p a r t b e c a u s e I w I s h s o m u c h I just Green’s popularity among teens, but c o u l d h a v e b e e N o N e in s e v e N t h also the desire for an earnest, emotionally g r a d e .” gratifying Internet experience of the kind Those are the words of John Green, offered by the Nerdfighters. author of the number-one New York Times So, what’s a “Nerdfighter” and why bestselling novel The Fault in Our Stars, does Green wish he could have been source of the film out this weekend. John is one? Nerdfighters are a group of mostly one of the founders of the millions-strong teenagers who spend a lot of time on the online movement called Nerdfighters, and Internet, especially Youtube, making videos the author’s success (he once held four spots and participating in their brand of social on the NY Times best seller list at the same change, which includes everything from 2 Writing Lessons :: Digital Empathy Writing Lessons :: Digital Empathy spreading anti-bullying messages to raising The Internet can be a rough place for money for charities. They inhabit a digital anyone. But for kids who’ve lived their entire neighborhood they refer to as “Nerdfighteria,” lives in the years since the invention of the and communicate in a language that may leave Internet, whose identities are intertwined with the uninitiated scratching their heads. their online life—author Devorah Heitner calls According to the Nerdfighters, there them “digital natives”—the potential dangers exists a certain amount of “world suck” that of the Internet are compounded. It’s easy to can be combated with “awesome.” To this get lost there, where “30 kids can be one kid and no one knows it,” says Heitner. Stories of Internet bully ing and harassment and isolation According to the Nerdfighters, are common, and so too are the terrible there exists a certain amount consequences that result, including acting out in violence and suicide. of “world suck” that can be According to a PEW Study, 90 percent of teens have observed, and ignored, cruel combatted with “awesome.” behavior online. The cruelty is increased for users with a female-sounding name, who are 25 times more likely to receive malicious messages end, Nerdfighters created the Foundation after putting content online. to Decrease World Suck, which every year These kinds of online behaviors have holds The Project 4 Awesome, a fundraising left a lot of kids searching for compassion competition to raise money for organizations and understanding, looking for friends decreasing suck around the world. who will accept them and tell them they are This is the language of the Nerdfighters, and loved. But the Internet is not only a source it is used wholly without irony. Nerdfighters are of discrimination, bullying, and anonymous “made of awesome” and work together to “fight harassment. It also the place where a teenage against world suck.” The motto is DFTBA: girl with cancer can live her last months sharing Don’t Forget To Be Awesome. Part of being Youtube videos with thousands of interested in Nerdfighteria means understanding the and responsive viewers; who could inspire a language, the hand-signals, and the countless novelist and leave a legacy of support for the inside-references. families of children with terminal cancer. What does all this—suck and awesome and This is what it means to be made of DFTBA—mean? Nerdfighters rarely spell things awesome in Nerdfighteria. To be a part of out with much clarity; “We just want to make something that gives to others, while providing cool stuff with people we like,” John once said that sense of intimacy and inclusion that comes of the Nerdfighters. But one can get a sense of with creating and sharing a language and the community by looking at their work. Last cultural identity with other people. year’s Project 4 Awesome, a Youtube-based fundraiser held in December, raised more than A brief history of Nerdfighteria $850,000 in two days for Doctors Without Nerdfighteria is the creation of John Green and Borders, Books for Africa, Water.org, Women his brother, the environmental blogger and for Women International, and many others musician Hank Green. In 2007, the Greens organizations. dubbed themselves “the Vlogbrothers” and But the Nerdfighters are doing more started a Youtube video blogging channel called than fundraising, sharing Youtube videos, Brotherhood 2.0. The original Brother 2.0 videos and passing along in-jokes. They are are short—four minutes or less—and consist of bringing kindness and empathy to the native one brother looking into the camera speaking environment of its teenage members—the directly to the other. Hank, a fast-talking, hand- Internet—a place that too often lacks both. waving science guy, made a strong contrast to Writing Lessons :: Digital Empathy Writing Lessons :: Digital Empathy 3 John’s quieter, more pensive presence. anticipation (the film sold more advanced The brothers cover all kinds of subjects, with tickets than any drama in the history of the an emphasis on the personal and the geeky. ticket-selling service Fandango) accompanying John would discuss the progress of his latest the release of The Fault in Our Stars. novel just as often as he would go on a rant about the economic waste involved in keeping Esther Earl and The Fault in our Stars the penny in circulation. Hank wrote songs The Fault in our Stars is the story of a teenage girl about Harry Potter and discussed the nutritional named Hazel Grace Lancaster, her relationship with a boy named Augustus Waters, and her life with thyroid cancer. The book was also, at least in part, inspired by John Green’s mostly online friendship with a girl named Esther Earl. Esther was a teenager and video blogger. In 2010, when she was 16, she died of thyroid cancer. She was an early member of the Nerdfighters, and her presence is still felt strongly across the Internet. Watching her videos, one quickly gets a sense of Esther’s personality. She made silly videos where she listed the objects in her bedroom, or celebrated information of Peeps candy. Archie Comics, or explained her time-traveling What made the Vlogbrothers special was not experiences as the smoke-monster from the the subject matter, but the commitment Hank television show Lost. She was a goofy and warm and John gave to the project, and, by extension, and vibrant teenager, fluent in the language of to each other. Hank and John laid their the Internet. relationship bare for all viewers who wanted to (Esther’s videos are available on the Youtube observe, and it wasn’t hard, right from the start, Channel HELLO THERE, where she posted to see that this was something special. videos under the name Cookie4Monster4). The show quickly attracted a group of Esther’s videos detailed her experience with devoted online fans, who aided the creation of thyroid cancer, but it’s clear her cancer did not Vlogbrothers videos by participating in book define her. She talked about her family often clubs and challenges the Greens offered. Some and with reverence. After her diagnosis they even became “secret siblings,” by creating their moved back to the U.S. from France because own videos. After John found an arcade game she could receive better treatment here. She he mistakenly believed to be called Nerdfighters detailed life with an oxygen tube running (it was called Aero Fighters), the name was into her nostrils, “which are in your nose;” adopted. Brotherhood 2.0 had found its rallying she named her oxygen machine “Denmark,” cry.