Cyber Bullies?
This class focuses on a lot of benefits associated with Web 2.0 and the power of social media to enhance learning, but an incident this week made me think about some of the possible drawbacks of social media - cyber bullying. My first grade son was pinched by a fourth grader this week to the point it broke his skin and was teased on his bus ride to school. My husband and I had to go to the school to address the issue with the principal, who assured us that bullying is not acceptable at school. This is the type of bullying I witnessed when I was a child as well, but there is a new type of bullying that exist in Web 2.0.
This article provides some statistics about cyber bullying Internet Safety 101 - Cyberbullying Statistics. These statistics show that bullying occurs through social media everyday. Several teens have even committed suicide because of cyber bullying.
High school is hard for almost every teenager and harder for some than others. I had my share of embarrassments and false rumors, so I can't imagine what the impact of social media may have been in those situations. What are your thoughts on the impact of social media on today's teenagers? Does it make teens more prone to bullying? More prone to embarrassment?
posted by ChangeAgent501 @ 6:53 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
This is unfortunately one of the ugly sides of the Internet. I personally do not think there is a new way to bully, because the things bullies do are similar to what bullies have always done (even before the Internet), but now you have a medium where a bully can do these things and remain at a distance from their target. In some cases, bullies can even remain anonymous (check out ask.fm). By being able to separate themselves from the emotional backlash from their targets, bullies might feel bigger and more powerful than if they had to say these mean things in person.
From my experience working in schools, I think everyone is trying to do the best they can with zero tolerance policies most schools have in place for bullying. But there is obviously a lot to still figure out with regards to cyber bullying, and sadly most of the "figuring out" is reactionary.
I hate any kind of bullying. I think that social media is just another way people have found to hurt others. It needs to be taught from the beginning that bullying is bad. It breaks my heart when I see how cruel people (especially teens) can be towards others. It also gets me angry to see that people can do or say horrible things without feeling remorse. It needs to stop. I just hope people find a way to reduce it....fast.
I'm so sorry to hear your family is dealing with this behavior, and especially your son. Ugh.
Bullying is everywhere, that's for sure. In the social media realm, I don't think there's space for it in educational uses (and the community / hive usually does a good job of driving out bullies if they show up). However, not all social media use is educational or learning related, not by a long shot. I do think it is an educator's responsibility to model positive social media use and to provide guidelines/guidance to learners (age appropriate). I don't teach minors or even undergraduates, but I have a very clear sense of what I would want to teach them. With age, education, and maturity, the amount of bullying in an educational context seems to lessen, but as echo notes above it's just part of the larger landscape of unfortunate human behaviors.
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