My neighbors daughter needed help to write a poem. The theme of the poem dealt with bullying in school. She is only 9, so I asked her what she thought of bullying and how she felt about it. I was surprised by her response because I didn’t think she felt so strongly about it. She isn’t a victim of this crime and/or act but it’s nice to see that even a child know that it is wrong to treat another person badly for no reason. In the news I’m constantly hearing of teens who are bullied in school and suffer great amounts of emotional pain. YouTube has had many videos go viral because of teens expressing their hatred of having to go to school to face the daily torture. I’ve also come across a few videos of victims attacking their bullies to make them feel the same pain. It’s sad to see young people having to go through depression instead of enjoying life with no worries.
There have been many artists who have debut songs that speak out against bullying from anyone you encounter whether at school, work, or by family members. Pink has a video that shows one girls self-worth diminished from a very young age having to go through struggles and trying to fit in. Fortunately, her story turned into a positive one and she was able to turn her life around. Sadly, the same cannot be said for many teens that are currently being tortured by fellow peers for pure satisfaction.
School day bullying certainly is a problem and it is one that is only exacerbated by online social networks. According to stopbullying.com (http://www.stopbullying.gov/topics/cyberbullying/) cyberbullying is something that has only been increasing with time and that is worse than normal bullying because messages can be: (1) sent 24 hours per day 7 days a week 365 days per year (2) shared and published anonymously and (3) dissipated to a large audience. This site claims that cyberbullying result in higher rates on poor grade, unwillingness to attend school and lower-self esteem than traditional bullying. I am unsure of their research technique but regardless of any methodological flaws, the main point remains: cyberbullinig is a huge problem. Roughly 1 million children claim to be cyberbullied per year and this number will certainly only grow is children get more access to networks that allow them to share anonymously and to respond to the comments. For a problem that even the president is attempting to confront (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-10/obama-says-school-bullying-not-something-we-have-to-accept-.html) and one that has been linked to many broken adult and children suicides it seems that technology certainly is changing that landscape of going-up in a digital world.