Cyberbulllying

My little history of bullying

I’ll never forget that experience when I was in grade school; I was bullied with one of my classmates. We were classmates for some time and on that duration; she never missed a day without bullying me. She always yells at me for no reason and says whatever she wanted to say. She loved to pinch me and judged every mistake that I made. And then we became classmates again in high school, and on our first meeting, I didn’t understood why I was so scared to be near with her. The thing is, until now, I still don’t understand why she did it. I never asked her why; I never knew what her back story was. Later on, she admitted that she really bullied me before. I considered that admission as a sorry, I forgave her and we just moved on but there’s like a huge effect of it on me. It was a traumatic experience, although I’ve noticed that some of my classmates back-stabbed me but it was nothing compared to what she did. I really tried to forget it but it became part of my whole personality and image in life right now, it shaped me. Although, I quite possibly learned to be scared and isolate myself to others because of it but I also realized that it has a positive impact on me, I learned that it is bad to bully others and that I need to take responsible of myself on what I say or comment whether on cyber-world or on reality.
 

When bullying goes high-tech

“Unless and until our society recognizes cyber bullying for what it is, the suffering

of thousands of silent victims will continue.” - Anna Maria Chavez

We’ve always heard about it, on news or on social media, it is present everywhere and yet we still do it  and sometimes we don’t know that we’re doing it… Bullying whether at school or online is serious and shouldn’t be taken for granted. 

I became aware about bullying since I was in elementary because I myself was a former victim of it. I recalled upon the memories and it wasn’t easy.  It wasn’t the best feeling in the world. People made fun of you or physically hurt you and figuratively pushed you to the ground.  It will have your self-esteem torn apart. It will make you question about yourself and let your weaknesses exposed. But one thing that I’ve learned about the experience is it will make you stand up by your own feet. 

“When people point out your weaknesses, that’s just another

opportunity for you to rise above.” – Zac Efron

At the present, I use social networking sites such as Twitter to express my thoughts about the current events and public issues including cyberbullying. Every day, several bullying incidents occur on Twitter alone and most of the targets are celebrities.

Singer Adele was targeted by internet trolls following the birth of her son. She was abused by several Twitter uses who posted disturbing and hurtful messages about her baby, just minutes after news broke that she had become a mom.

Australia's Next Top Model host Charlotte Dawson committed suicide after bombarded by several abuse and attacks on Twitter. The former model's appearance and personal life was criticized and many wished her dead. Before the incident, she had suffered long history of depression and made the target of an organized online campaign of harassment in part due to her involvement with an anti-cyber-bullying initiative, Community Brave. The tragic news led to an immediate outpouring of grief on social media networks.

Here are some of the comments received by Dawson on Twitter:

So what is an internet troll? According to YahooAnswers, it is the one who hides under the bridges of topics, eagerly waiting to pounce on meek or unexpecting individuals and shower them with opposing opinions or ideas (generally derogatorily). In other words, a troll usually remains anonymous unless someone could trace their identity and will depend based on the intensity of their internet behavior.

Alex Masters stated on his article, “Anonymity”  has been used to people’s advantage years before the birth of the internet. Authors of books often write under a pen name to protect their reputation. Being anonymous on the web makes it possible for people to discuss sensitive subjects, such as medical conditions, physical abuse and sexual orientation, without these actions affecting their everyday lives in a negative or potentially harmful way.

Anonymity also protects people who are in fear of persecution.

There are many positive ways to use anonymity on the web, but there can sometimes be very destructive side effects too, such as bullying, racism, accountability, impersonation of an individual or individuals, even stock market manipulation.

I have been a regular user of the internet for years and what I have noticed about being anonymous particularly in the blogging world is that it often comes with having no identity. They’re like creating their alter-ego, sometimes they based it on their favorite fictional characters or sometimes trolls or simply anonymous. Most of them are harmless, they love to engage on social networking sites and connect with people that have the same interests as them. They used their anonymity to praise the work (such as amateur novel or artwork) of the people they’ve met on the internet. Generally, I don’t think that being anonymous is a bad thing as it is often hard to enforce any laws on the internet. I think that people will always want the right to be anonymous, not just online, but offline too. It promotes freedom and privacy which are the two things we all want while using the internet.

The first and the best way to prevent and reduce any forms of bullying is parental guidance. Sometimes, it can be difficult to tell if your child is being bullied but there are ways which you can get involved as a parent. Every act of a child is nurtured from his home and family. There is no bullying if we teach and guide our children properly. Remind your child to stay away from strangers both in the playground and online. Also define to your child what you mean by “stranger” which is anyone they don’t know.  It is always important to monitor our children’s social activity online. Let your children gain confidence by knowing they can take care of themselves.

IT'S NOT A SIMPLE ISSUE. WE MUST NOT BE IGNORANT. LET'S SHOULD ACT ABOUT IT.

References:

Identity on the Internet: The pros and cons of anonymity. Alex Masters. September 19,  2011.

 

Celebrities Who Were Cyberbullied.  BullyVille.com. May 03, 2013

How to Keep Your Child From Harm’s Way. Business Mirror. March 21, 2014

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