In 2010, Anthony Elonis' wife left him, and he also lost his job. Because of the upsetting factors occurring in his life, he turned to social media to vent his frustrations — something I'm sure each one of us has seen from a friend or acquaintance online.

However, Elonis took it a step further, posting rap lyrics that contained violent language and imagery about his wife, co-workers, a kindergarten class and law enforcement officers. His wife felt threatened by some of his messages and went to authorities, and he was arrested. Elonis was later convicted on four counts of transmitting threats and sentenced to 44 months in prison.

For most, the story would end here. But Elonis was not ready to stop fighting, and his case highlights a difficult issue in regulating social media in today's era of technology.

Facebook and other social media sites have rules for managing individual speech online and enjoy legal protections from liability for material posted by users. But authorities are struggling over how to draw the distinction between illegal threats and violent speech that is protected by the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court case

Elonis finished serving his sentence a year ago, but he appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court, arguing that there must be evidence proving the threats were actually intended for specific people. On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed and overturned the conviction in a 7-2 margin in Elonis v. United States.

Elonis and his attorney argued that his statements were fictitious and were not associated with any person(s) in particular. They claimed the content was a form of therapy — quotes from comedians and rappers — and a form of the First Amendment.

The court stated that the government must do more than prove that a person would find the violent content threatening. "Our holding makes clear that negligence is not sufficient to support a conviction," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

Violence within social media

With technology changing every day, social media has opened the door for an entirely new platform for abusers to stalk, terrify and keep control of their victims.

"Telephone surveillance, Internet tracking, social media, video cameras, global positioning systems and a plethora of new software is out there," said Penni Micca, chairman of Connecticut's Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee. "The result keeps getting greater and greater on the part of the victims."

U.S. law enforcement agencies have tried to track threats, but are struggling because they need more data analytics and mining software to monitor the social media sites, as well as trained personnel to make sense of the data collected. With that said, monitoring social media by police tends to be responsive.

"Investigators use social networking sites to identify victims, look for witnesses and perpetrators, generate leads or search for evidence in the aftermath of a crime," Reuters stated.

Social media has also been used by terrorists as a threat against the U.S. and other governments.

"Social media and the Internet is the primary way in which these terrorism organizations are communicating," President Obama stated. "We're still going to have to find ways to make sure that if an Al-Qaeda affiliate is operating in Great Britain or in the United States, that we can try to prevent real tragedy."

How can you depict specific feelings?

The problem with bringing certain threats to light is the question of "How does one prove what's in somebody else's mind?" This is part of the argument the defense used in favor of Elonis — that his statements were fictitious and weren't serious in subject matter.

The defense argued that you cannot interpret feelings from Elonis' subject matter, but studies have shown that social media can depict mental illnesses.

In December, The New York Times discussed a new app that would alert users whenever someone they followed on Twitter posted troublesome phrases. The Samaritans, a well-known suicide prevention group in Great Britain, released the app in order to help recognize when individuals needed support. However, just a week and a half after the app was introduced, the group reconsidered their original idea and disabled it.

Microsoft Research from Redmond, Washington, hypothesized that social media contains indicators for portraying the beginning of depression in individuals, as "measured through decrease in social activity, raised negative effect, highly clustered egonetworks, heightened relational and medicinal concerns and greater expression of religious involvement."

All statements from individuals are written freely, but they are still used to distinguish an attribute to an illness.

Will we one day be able to determine when comments on social media cross over the line of protected free speech under the First Amendment?