The Problems with Socia Media - "Cyber Bullying"

 The Problems with Socia Media - "Cyber Bullying"

 

Cyber Bullying = Psychological Destruction ??

Technology has been a problem solver and problem creator for modern generations, besides the bad use of it, which has given the worse reputation ever to it. Currently people around the world have the possibility to communicate with friends, family, and unknown people by just reaching a simple click of button. Therefore, social media can be dangerous. Anyone can have access to internet everywhere and at any time, not to socialize, but to attack others with bad intentions. One of the brutalities that social media and technology has been involved with is Cyber Bullying. This recent obsession with harassment has caused agony and even suicides. And it is been proven that teens are among the majority of such cases around the world. While we celebrate the advanced networking, outside there are cases where others risk their lives because of it. People take advantage of social media such as cellphones, Facebook, MySpace, and other social networks to harass other users of internet which can lead to Cyber Bullying.
 

            Anyone can become a victim of cyber bullying, due to the fact that by using the web we are strongly exposed to any kind of aggressions. The negative communication between users of the internet more often has been resulted in death. Insulting others through social media can “kill” them internally. Just one powerful word can cause such as an awful tragedy. Because people currently increased the use of technology such as devices and wireless/Internet, not to mention the exploding popularity of social media sites, there is more chance to be a victim of cyber bullying (Swearer, 4). With today’s technology bullying has become easier than ever; the children and youth adults of this generation do not need to have personal confrontation. This is the case of one of my best friends that committed suicide after being bullied and cyber bullied. Andres was a 17 year old boy, who had the sweetest heart ever. He was always putting a big smile on our faces. He came from Nayarit, Mexico about three years before the tragedy. He was starting to speak English and many people around him had high expectations from him. I had him for most of my classes; this is why we became very close friends. One day, he decided to move up to regular classes with no help from ESL students. The first three weeks of regular classes for Andres were the most intense of all. Our peers were bullying him during school classes or by MySpace/Facebook because of his accent and his background. He did not want to pay attention to those comments, but in reality they were affecting him little by little.  Andres decided to move out from that High School and transferred to another school in Sacramento. A while later I found out that Andres had committed suicide. His family did not notice what those aggressions were doing to him, as well as his friends that never thought it would end up with a tragedy. No one was suspicious about the harm that bullies and cyber bullies were doing to him. This tragedy occurred all of a sudden and impacted not only the close people to him, but the entire community. Him as well as children and teens around the world are being bullied and cyber bullied and nobody do anything about it. This problem could be inside house and no one notices it. Victims of cyber bullying think that there is no way to go; that there is no solution to stop the aggressions and that is not true. There are lots of organizations waiting for those who need help one of them is stopbullying.gov.
 

According to the article “Cyberbullying” one of the articles in Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection says that kids spend so much time communicating with their peers in front of a computer or cellphone, with the consequences of being losing the social skills needed for real interactions with others. This could be happening home; Children with the privilege of having cellphone, computer or any devise are more worried about being online or socializing with “friends” by social media, but not having a good time somewhere with your loved ones. There is many ways to know if children are being cyber bullied or bullied. For example, refusing to go to school, not going out with friends, and angry with him/herself, those are just some of the characteristics of cyber bullied victims. Statistics show that “victims of cyber bullying have fewer friends than average and are more likely to feel lonely at school (Cyberbullying, 2, 4).”  Furthermore, in the article “Ongoing and online: Children and youth’s perceptions of cyber bullying” written by Faye Mission, Michael Saini, and Steven Solomon, they found out that children spend at least three hours per day sitting in front the computer instead of watch television with the family (Misson,2). One reason why children are all day in social websites is because they feel alone and they want to have the sensation that someone cares about them, taking in mind that their parents are not there for them because of work of personal problems.

 Another issue with cyber bullying is the fact that parents have a hard time preventing it because, children feel like they can take care of things but then it gets to overwhelming and they end up risking their lives.  As an example of it, there is a movie called “Cyberbully”. In this movie Taylor the protagonist of the film interprets a 17 year old girl who is raised by her mother. Taylor and her younger brother share the computer that is placed in the living room. On her birthday her mother gives her a laptop just for her, so she will not share it with her brother. She is excited because has the independence of going online without her mother always keeping an eye on her. Some people from school start to make fun of her online and Taylor becomes afraid to face them in school. Suddenly, Taylor meet James online and she think he is cute and sweet, but he is only trying to humiliate her. Taylor becomes depress, because the harassment she is ongoing. At the end, she succumbs to depression and posts a video online saying that she can no longer live with herself. Her “friend” who creates another account online with another identity “James” feels very guilty witnessing Taylor’s strong reaction (ready to kill herself). People are unknown of the identity and purpose of networking users. 

Some people must say that allowing internet access to children in home is safer than being exposed to be attacked outside. But what they do not realize is that assaults, insults and jeers are everywhere, even at home. In these days there is no safe place, because something could be happening inside home and nobody will know about it. Children could be on risk by using social networks; they could be victims or even more extreme situation, being the aggressors of other children by getting access to chat rooms, see unwanted material, or bully other children without others knowing about it. The problem is when we want to know who is responsible for the attacks online, we never find out who is doing it, because of many fake names that are being used in order to “hide behind the screen.” Cyber bullying makes it easier for bullies because they are not face-to-face with their victim, so the victim cannot defend itself. That is the case of Taylor the girl from the movie “Cyberbully”, where she is been aggressed by her best friend. Her friend changed her name and used the identity of a guy that was trying to be friendly with her, but that ended harassing her and making Taylor attempts against her life.
 

To conclude, we can say that bullying can happen to anyone. The impact this matter has within society has increased throughout recent years. Social media, technology, even stereotypes, and ways of thinking of people have tremendously contributed positively but mostly negatively in the way that people get into the contact zone in which one can be exposed to anything, either bad or good. Therefore, those who are willing to survive any type of bullying have the option to overcome it by reaching out for help. Furthermore, people may think that they are alone and that no one would understand. Self-esteem is the first cognitive part that is affected. This may lead to depression and even for one to commit suicide. I can say that affected people are not alone. There is hope and answer for what people may being going through. Look forward to solve cyber bullying issues or even others not related with this topic from the most adequate manner and not committing something that would affect others with our actions. The first step in the pursuing of bullying overcome is to get help and keep in mind that there is a solution for everything.