Cyberbullying
Over the years we have seen some of the incidences of bullying increase in our society. This could be the result of the explosion of social media and how profound this network is accessible in our culture. Unfortunately the combination of social media and bullying has sometimes ended in tragedy.
Cyberbullying – When Words Hurt
Bullying has been defined as the use of aggressive behavior to make a victim out of someone. Because the Internet and more specifically the use of social networks increased role in the every day lives of preteens and teens, bullying has transformed into cyber bowling which has reached catastrophically high levels.
Because of this a complete understanding of cyber bullying in the 21st-century is necessary. Furthermore we must understand that the causes and cases of bullying spread through social media and action is vital. The reality is that it today society almost everyone has a smart phone which gives every student a weapon to use to bully a victim.
Statistically data shows us when cyberbullying is most likely to occur.
In years past it was easy to tell someone that might be a victim of bullying to just simply walk away. However in the case of cyber bowling this is nearly impossible. And it comes disguised in many forms through the wires. I have often said that sarcasm is just sugarcoated hostility. In terms of bullying the idea of trolling is quite simply sugarcoated cyber bullying.
The urban dictionary defines trolling as being a prick on the Internet because you can. Typically unleashing one or more cynical or sarcastic remarks on the innocent bystander because it’s the Internet, and hey, you can.
Trolls hide behind the keyboard, but cause the same amount of damage.
It is important for us as a society to understand that there are at times long-lasting effects from bullying. This contradicts the old thought process that bullying existed school dance by adulthood as we have seen the effects for both the victim and the offender range from depression and low self-esteem all the way to criminal activities. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that the leading causes of death for children under the age of 15 is suicide and the fact that younger people today are more foldable to cyber bullying. Despite all of this little has been done. Much of our legislative branch fails to recognize the enormous an alarming rate of cyber bullying and tend to put the issue on the back burner. It is time for all of us to wake up and do something that will set a positive vibration throughout our culture.
Words to remember
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/cyberbullying/index.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/03/how-to-stop-bullies/309217/
http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it/
