“Cyber bullying is an imprecise label for online activities ranging from barrages of teasing texts to sexually harassing group sites. The extent of the phenomenon is hard to quantify. But one 2010 study by the Cyber bullying Research Center, an organization founded by two criminologists who defined bullying as "willful and repeated harm” inflicted through phones and computers, said one in five middle-school students had been affected.” (The New York Times, p. Cyber bullying) Have you been a victim? You would be surprised at who has been bullied and who does the bullying.
I run a non- profit college planning organization and I had to get special permission to blog even for my secondary educational needs. It was approved only with all my information being researched and checked. The Board of Directors approved the topic of Cyber Bullying because the group has mentoring programs on internet safety and use and feels any enlightened conversation will help the young students.
Cyber bullying is everywhere in the news, TV, and radio. I would go one step beyond the teenage and middle school crisis and touch on another issue of cyber bullying with religious groups. These groups include both Far right, left, and atheists.
Everyone’s point of view is correct one group says the world is 6000 years old another group says it is millions of years and the argument of who is correct leads to more arguments. My experience comes from a local networking group in a community I lived in for most of my life.
I decided to join a study group to learn more of the religions of the world. I contributed as was expected and part of the agreement with the group. We had full disclosure and agreements in place to not violate privacy and respect of others. Our contributions were mostly regarding community service and helping others and the different practices from around the world.
Then the zealots took over our group. Victimization on the internet comes in many forms. Cyber bully is the new buzz word but I would like to add one, “Pastors of the Internet” (POTI). What I mean by this statement the group came across self proclaimed pastors who were very innocuous at the beginning and very comforting to some of the group.
Slowly the change came about and the proof of the first statement “willful and repeated harm” as cited proved to be spot on target. The fact there were threats of violence did not become clear until the day the group did NOT say amen to one of the “POTI” posts of great length and rambling words of no meaning.
None of knew he was testing everyone and the threats started slowly at first and very obscure but it grew to the point people were threatened with death. I never gave my real name most of the people did identify themselves which I believed to be a mistake but everyone trusted. I had one of those gut feelings and I used an alias.
My research ended on this project and my class was done. I left this group and have never logged in since then. I could not take the brutal attacks on some members of our group. I was not one of them as I am fairly meek and mild with internet postings.
50, 60, and 70 year old people were bullied, called names, and told to die as they were too old to live anymore. All of this from a “pastor”, cyber bullying yes it is more than any of us can know. There has got to be an answer.
References
The New York Times. (2010, September 30). Cyber bullying. Message posted retrieved from http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/cyberbullying/index.html,
4 comments:
Cyber bullying does seem to be more in the news lately. I just don't understand why someone wants to make another's life so miserable. What the answer to the problem is I don't know but, I do know that some newer cell phones will allow you to block calls and messages from unknown numbers or numbers you do not want to answer.
One used to have to worry only about bullies in school and work. Now one can not be safe in their own homes without being cyber bullyed. Perhaps cyber bulling should be treated as a fedral crime such as raketeering
Bullies are people who like to prey on the weak and mae fun of others. Bullies need an audience and what better audience than the internet. The internet is the largest audience a person can have and others are more likely to jion in because it is in the virtual world.
The problem with the internet is the realtive anonymity of it. It's a lot easier to denegrade someone when your identity is protected. The freedom of the internet has provided those of questionable moral character an avenue to express their previously unexpressed views. It's a perfect example of using technology for good and evil.
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