Cyberbullying

[Tulip86]

The thing it that there is no escape... even online you will get bullied. You can't escape it at school, you can't escape at home, and they're there online as well. For everyone to see. The fact that others can witness your humiliation adds to the bullying.

[Drolefille]

This is kind of the "I never wore a seat belt as a kid/slept in the back window/etc. and I'm fine" of bullying. It's nice that YOU were fine, but other people died.

Similarly many bullied kids did just fine, others killed themselves. The ultimate goal of anti-bullying campaigns, along with more targeted campaigns like It Gets Better is to keep kids safe and actually stop harassment rather than just brushing it off as 'kids will be kids" or "builds character."

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Alumiyum

Maybe. But they also know that the entire world can see what's written about them. Whereas a kid that got harassed in high school could look forward to at least getting to start fresh in college before online harassment, now those facebook/myspace pages about them follow them around...and if their bullies are really resourceful and move on to internet sites that won't take harassment down if reported, it's there forever.

Major difference between bullying then vs bullying now.

In 1985, if Jack got bullied every single day at his HS in NY State, he could choose to go to boarding school in Virginia or college in Oregon. Yes he would have to deal with those assholes when he came home to visit, but for the most part, his day to day (and the rest of his life) would be pretty much free of them if he chose to make it so.

Whereas in 2010, Jack's roommate to be, the guys in the fraternity he's rushing, and the girl he wants to date can Google him and see the "Jack is a dweeb" page that some dickhead made back in 2008. No matter how much those people think that the sort of person who does such a thing is a useless idiot and has Jack completely wrong...that "Jack is a dweeb" is still going to stick in the back of their brain, and prevent Jack from getting a truly new beginning.

I read an article in Allure many moons ago about a woman who had major dental issues and was tormented mercilessly as a kid. She said the worst taunt was being told "You're so ugly you'll never get married" - because they were trashing not just her present but telling her she had nothing to look forward to in the future as well.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

The reality is that it was also a "big deal" when we were kids. I don't remember if there were PSAs on TV but we had a few school assemblies about people who were picking on others.

We had:


Remember Psst! Hammerman's After You?