Cyberbullying as defined by Canadian teacher Bill
Belsey is "the use of information and communication technologies to
support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group,
that is intended to harm others." In other words, using cell phones,
Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platform to harass an individual.
While this is a very serious occurrence, and shouldn’t be something that is
happening, I personally feel that the whole thing is being blown out of
proportion. To me, cyberbullying is just the latest way that bullies bully
other kids. What used to be giving kids mean nicknames and pestering them about
this or that has simply just followed everything else in our culture and made
it’s way to the internet and social media. Now in no way am I saying that this
is right, I’m very against it happening, and precautions against it should be
taken, but I feel that trying to eradicate it and abolish it from schools and
other institutions is just foolish. Not only will there always be that person
or persons who just flat out ignore the rules and do it anyway, but one tricky
thing about cyberbullying is that what one person views as being cyberbullied,
another might just call having a little harmless fun with no intentions of harm
to the individual feeling wronged. This article
from the anti bullying website bullybeware.com
asks the question “What would Cyberbullying look like if there were no screen
to hide behind?” I feel that is a legitimate question, but one that I think has
a rather simple answer. It would look like regular, “good” old-fashioned
bullying. I believe that there are definitely some things that are said by
cyberbullies that they wouldn’t say face to face solely because not having to
literally say it allows them to be more aggressive, but I really think that at
the end of the day you’ve got to come to terms with the fact that some people
out there are just bullies, and outright mean people who will do their best to
put down others for whatever reasons they believe justifiable. I hope that I’m
wrong in saying that I don’t think that there will ever be a final, end-all
solution to cyberbullying, but I do believe that with time and the proper
education about the subject, there will be much more hope for individuals who
are being cyberbullied and a safe outlet for them to be able to receive help
for their situations.
Cybebullying is a very difficult subject to regulate and I agree that it has been blown out of proportion. Cyberbullying is just like any other type of bullying and with any other type of bullying there are ways for the people to get out of it. Like bullying in schools, the kids that are getting bullied can just walk away or tell a teacher about. With cyberbullying it is even easier for people to get away from it. For online use it is as simple as closing out the program you are being bullied on. So I feel instead of people looking towards the government to solve their problems, people should take matters into their own hands with problems of cyberbullying.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that cyberbullying is a difficult subject and practically impossible to abolish. I agree with Travis on how easy it can be for someone to advoid getting in trouble with cyberbullying. The person doing the bullying can easily log on as someone else and no one may ever no the difference. I also agree with Britt on that cyberbullying without the screen is just plain bullying and that we will always have those type of people out there in our society. Bringing the issue of bullying and cyberbulling to the governement, I feel, will do us no good. There's a different of bullying and harrasment. When someone gets harrased to the point where they are no longer safe that is when government or other legal forces should start taking action, but not just the name calling and harmless bullying. However, this is where it could get confusing because what one person could consider harmful another may not...
ReplyDeleteIn general, I feel cyberbullying is also being blown out of proportion and nothing may ever change. Eventually kids will just find a new way to bully one another.
I do agree that cyberbullying probably will never be abolished and that it is just our generation’s way of making fun of another kid. I believe though, that this is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with and given attention. We are told over and over again that what we do on the internet is there forever and that it will never go away. Simply “hacking” onto somebody’s Facebook and posting things that may offend others, could potentially hurt that person in the future when it comes to finding a job. We can all agree that bullying is bad and that it can have lasting effects on a child; but what happens when those effects are there literally forever?
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