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Growing up I was too a victim of bulling. However, when I was bullied, things were much different. Back then, I knew the people who were bulling me, todays it’s hard to know who the bullies are. Overnight, things change, our world has gone digital and ever since so has bulling. Today traditional or face to face bulling has taken a new name, cyberbullying. 

Cyberbullying as I mentioned in my previous posts is a form of constant harassment and torture over the internet and social media. The victims are constantly harassed, made fun of, excluded, fat shamed and so much more.  Usually, the victims never know who the person behind the screen is because it has become easier to be anonymous.  Due to the constant abuse over the internet, children develop eating disorder, depression and anxiety. But what is even more painful, is to witness or hear stories of children who have self-harm themselves or taken their own lives in order to end such a suffering. According to Megan Meier Foundation, in the US suicide has double since 2008 and according to them it is the second leading cause of death for teenagers and young adults.  Additionally, studies reveal that those who were bullied at a much younger age still face bulling even later in life. However, some data also states that those who wore were victimized can too the bullies.  


Due to be cyberbullied, most children seek help from their families, friends or counselors. However, depending on the stigma that surround both genders, males might be more inclined not to talk to anyone versus girls. For men, the stigma is that they are the embodiment of strength which place pressure in males because based on society men should be tough enough to handle the pressure that comes from being bullied.  Which ultimately prevents them from seeking help or speak to anyone.  Another highly possible effect that might prevent people from speaking up is prejudgment. Because of certain prejudice that society has placed upon certain groups, it becomes harder for these groups to seek the help they needed. For example, if a black or a latino kid has been awfully quiet, the teacher doesn’t ask the kid what’s wrong or if everything is okay, they mostly assume that they are distracted or that they are focusing on other things. Due to the pressure children might feel, the response might not be the best and instead of understanding why these kids are behaving in that way or why they are acting different, the teacher usually punishes them. However, if that was someone else, things might have been different. Moreover, some teenagers avoid the conversation because they are afraid or nervous that they will be turned down.  Additionally, those who bullied their victims usually send threats to intimidate the person and prevent them from speaking up. According to Fox San Antonio, Dr. Rene Olvera from the UT Health Science Center stated that children avoid speaking up because when they do, the people who provided some sort of advice weren’t helpful or worst they just told them to ignore it. By doing so and showing lack of support when people need it the most, make it even more difficult for teenagers to face difficulties. 


Now that the world is facing a pandemic and everything seems to be shifting online, cyberbullying might become much more prevalent that anything. Since everyone is now all-over social media and interacting in more than one platform, it will become much easier for bullies to target people in more than one place. 


As a society we must encourage our children to become much more responsible over the internet and make them understand the repercussion of cyberbullying. We also have to become much more responsible when people ask or seek for help, we shouldn’t let prejudice change our opinion about people and if we see a student or child  struggling or we see them acting differently than usual we must let them know that they have someone that they can count on. 


Work Cited

Fox Son Antonio. (2016, April). 90% Of Cyberbullying Victims Don't Tell Adults.  Retrieved from

Megan Meier Foundation. (2018). Bullying, Cyberbullying, & Suicide Statistics. Retrieved from
https://meganmeierfoundation.org/statistics

Comments

  1. Now a days it is so easy to cyber bully without having to say something mean to someones face. However, I believe that cyberbullying is incredibly worse than bullying face to face. With comments online, people are not afraid to say whatever they want because they are hiding behind a screen. If it was face to face it would be a lot different. With the advances in technology we as a society need to take cyberbullying very seriously.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andrea, I think this blog does a great job of highlighting some social issues that have been fairly controversial over the years. Mental health, especially in youths is something we should look into deeper and you did a great job with that in your blog>
    Nicely done

    ReplyDelete
  3. Andrea,

    Thank you shedding light on such an important and sad topic. As technology has become more advanced, I agree that cyberbullying has become a huge issue. It is so easy to hide behind a screen and say really mean things. With online commenting, it can really affect someones mental health, especially those who are younger. This is a really large issue, especially with the rise in suicide rate. I hope that people will eventually try to find kindness in their hearts and leave the mean comments to themselves. Great job with your blog.

    Madeline Milne

    ReplyDelete
  4. Andrea,

    I really enjoyed your blog and thought you brought up many great points. I agree with you that cyberbullying does, in a way make it easier to be mean to someone without the consequences that in person bullying might have. Given the accessibility and anonymity of the internet I think it is a very important issue to examine especially for children and parents. Great job highlighting a very important topic, I enjoyed reading!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I really liked your last paragraph particularly, that we need to encourage children to be more responsible for themselves, for their words, and teach them to defend themselves as well. However, before we also need to become better ourselves in this sense, as children tend to imitate this behavior we need to be more precise on what is posted online and how we, as adults, behave ourselves.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey Andrea, did a great job with the blog,
    Growing up I was always told if your going to say something mean to someone at least say it to their face, but nowadays bullies hide behind screens and are cowards. This is definitely a topic we need to focus on because its hard for kids to defend themselves if they don't even know who the bully is, we need to keep teaching kids to reach out for help and to stand up for others!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey Andrea!

    You did a wonderful job with this! Cyberbullying is such a hard topic to discuss because its so complex and the outcomes are sometimes so disheartening. You are so right when you say that cyberbullying could be worse now than it ever has, the internet is the only thing we all seem to know. Hiding behind a screen makes it too easy and that is so terrifying for not only us adults, but especially children. Again, you really made a strong point when saying we need to teach our kids to be responsible. Bullying over the internet will never go away but if we can teach our kids how to combat it in a responsible way and to, in general, be responsible with themselves maybe we can try to lessen this issue monumentally. Great job, thank you for sharing!!

    Mikayla

    ReplyDelete

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