Cyber-Bullying- Bullying That Can Be Most Devastating

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I’m fortunate enough to have grown up in a time when cyber-bullying was unheard of. When I was in school, “Street Bullying” or “Playground Bullying” was the type of bullying my generation endured.

“Street Bullying” happens face to face. It happens on the playground, in the hallways, the bathrooms, and locker rooms at school. Years ago, a student could escape it and have some form of refuge once the dismissal bell rang, and school was over for the day. And when it got too much to endure, the target simply changed schools, and the problem was solved.

Sadly, those days are long gone. With today’s technology, bullies have unlimited access to their targets by way of “Cyber-bullying.” During the last twenty-five years, technology’s advancement has introduced email, text, and social media. These new vehicles of communication have their benefits. However, they also have their pitfalls.

A bully can nowadays get online and torment their targets for as long as they want without ceasing nor accountability. They can, in essence, reach into the target’s own home and torment them from afar.

Cyber-bullying, or online bullying, is harassment of another person using social media, text messages, voice mail, email, and instant messages. It is, in my opinion, the worst kind of bullying there has ever been. Here are the reasons:

1.Bullies are COWARDS!
Your attackers have the ability to hide behind a fake screen name, or they may create fake social media accounts to conceal their identities. They do this to avoid detection and the risk of accountability for their evil actions.

With a cyberbully, you do not know who is attacking you. Also, they can use several different screen names to make it look like many people agree with them and are attacking you, when it may be, in fact, only one poster committing the harassment. This is done to further intimidate the target.

2. Gone are the days when bullying only occurred on the playground or in the locker room. Before technology took off in the days of old, a target could finally escape their tormentors with the ringing of the dismissal bell at school or after punching out at work..

Back then, you could go home to your family and not have to worry about being bullied again until the next school day. You could at least get a break from the torment. However, not so anymore. Technology has a lot of good qualities, one of which is convenience. Unfortunately, nothing is 100% foolproof. With the rise of social media, text, voice mail, and email, bullies can now pursue their targets 24-7. There is no longer an escape!

3. The third reason cyber-bullying is much worse than traditional or street bullying is that the taunts, insults, threats, rumors, and lies can be read by a much wider audience, causing loss of relationships, family, friends, businesses, finances, and opportunities.
On the emotional side, the target may experience feelings of shock, bewilderment, anger, sadness, despair, depression, hopelessness, and thoughts of suicide.

Traditional bullying is terrible and causes those feelings as well. However, it is something that you can get away from. On the other hand, you can never escape cyber-bullying. This alone is what makes this type of bullying so sinister and so devastating!

If you are a cyber-bullying victim, you mustn’t respond to the incendiary posts of cyber-bullies, no matter how tempting it may be. However, I realize that some attacks, especially those, which hit you in the jugular, can cause you to respond out of emotion.

This does not mean that you are a bad person for responding to attacks. It does not mean that you are stupid. It only means that you are a human being with feelings, and our first instinct is always to defend ourselves and our loved ones when threatened. It is completely understandable.

But no matter our circumstances, we must try to never respond to the ignorance and stupidity of bullies or cyber-bullies. As difficult as this may be, it is better to never give internet trolls what they want. And what they want is a response, any response.

They want to kick you while you are already down and inflict even more pain. If you respond in any way, shape, or form, they will know that they have reached their goal. But if they never hear from you, it’s going to disappoint them, and they just might give up and move on to someone else.

4. Instead of responding, out them! Take screenshots and expose them!

Cyber-bullying can happen to people of any age. Not only children and teens, but adults can also be cyber-bullied. Although I have gotten along with mostly everyone as an adult, there have been a few times that I have been cyber-bullied, one instance being right after the death of my husband. I can tell you that after refusing to respond to any of it, the harassment died, and the thread was eventually removed. No one has bothered me since.

In their weak attempts to put me down, my cyber-bullies unwittingly made me so many new friends, and I received so much support from all over the country. It is amazing how the actions of a bully can sometimes turn into something wonderful.

Scared and sad female teenagers with computer laptops suffer cyberbullying and harassment being online abused by stalker or gossip feeling desperate and humiliated in cyberbullying.

I will be forever grateful to the people (even strangers) who stood beside me during this tragic time. I hope this helps you if you are cyber-attacked. And I want to assure you that there is always hope, no matter how hopeless a situation may be.

Cyber-bullying can be stressful enough for adults but devastating for minors. Adults are emotionally better equipped and more adept at handling themselves in bullying situations, whereas children and teens have yet to fully develop good coping mechanisms.

Children do not have the cognitive thinking skills nor the processing ability that adults possess. Adults can be hurt by online bullying because they are human and have feelings also. However, any well-rounded adult can better look at the situation and see the lies posted online for exactly what they are…LIES. And they have the ability to analyze the bully and see the person as he/she is- useless trash who is in desperate need of a life.

And that in itself can actually boost the bullied adult’s self-esteem…just knowing what a bottom-of-the-barrel, miserable piece of garbage the bully really is. In most cases, an adult can usually laugh it off and go on about their business, provided it doesn’t affect his/her family, marriage, business, opportunities, or way of life. An adult can refuse to accept another bullying adult’s lies and tell them to go blow it out their ear.

A child has not learned to do that yet. Children and teenagers have totally different values than adults. While most “mature” adults place the most value on family, career, and home and less value on popularity, children and teens place the most value on popularity…their friends and being accepted. Most children and teens place emphasis on how others (mainly their peers) see them.

They want to fit in, be liked, and be “cool.” And when those things are threatened, as they always are when he/she is cyber-attacked, it can have devastating effects on self-esteem.

As parents and grandparents, we need to teach our children confidence as confidence is the best weapon against a bully. In my opinion, teaching confidence is the most effective way to protect them because bullies are cowards, and they always seek out kids who are insecure, self-conscious and have low self-esteem. And they do this because they know that a child with low self-esteem is less likely to stand up to them.

30 thoughts on “Cyber-Bullying- Bullying That Can Be Most Devastating

  1. 80smetalman says:

    I am also glad I didn’t grow up in the age of the internet. I’m sure I would have been cyberbullied as well. Good post, you expose cyberbullies for the saddos they are.

  2. Sinha Sinhale says:

    How are you my dear friends. I am new here. I don’t know anything about wordpress. Can anyone guide me how to create websites and blogs using this app.

  3. dolphinwrite says:

    I think you have some very good points, but there’s something more to consider. I don’t believe, any of my friends or I would have been “tormented” by cyber… because we always gave as good as we got, but more importantly, our lives did not surround electronics. We lived in the “real world”, and that’s an important ingredient in growing up. Out making friends, sometimes getting into arguments or fights, digging through dumpsters for bike parts, playing sports, dodging the teachers, and more. But there’s another aspect. The disconnect between parents and their children. I’ve said this before: Why, if you don’t want to know your children, have conversations, go camping, discuss the important aspects of life, but also discipline and require chores, would you (You refers to parents I’ve considered, but talked to a couple of times. I used softer words.) have children? What we have are a lot of kids/teens who don’t know themselves, don’t know their parents, and are getting into a world they little understand, but more importantly, don’t need to be a part. **Those of us who grew up without all of this, but socialized in the real world, took on hobbies and jobs in various, and learned to think for ourselves, aren’t clinging to the electronic-social world. Our identities are safe from electronic social, because we never depended upon that. Real friends. Real experiences. And not needing to be great or popular in your own eyes, but decent, thoughtful, determined, and going your own way while responsible to your friends and family.

    • cheriewhite says:

      You couldn’t have said it better. The internet has become somewhat of an electronic babysitter. Parents aren’t monitoring their children enough when they get online because most of them don’t want the child or teen in their hair and it’s truly sad.

      When I was growing up, we had video games like, the Atari, Colleco Vision, NES, and Odyssey. Our mother only allowed us 2 hours per day to play our video games and that was a good thing. And kids today should only be allowed on the internet 2 hours per day (that’s only my opinion). Because kids need family time and time to socialize face to face with their peers. But sadly, our kids have become dehumanized by the internet and gaming.

      There’s nothing like face to face socialization and being responsible with chores, after school jobs, etc. I think kids spend too much time online, which is why there are so many incidences of cyber-bullying. Also, there are so many sex-traffickers and online child predators online looking for victims. They know that’s where most kids are going to be, online. And it’s both sad and terrifying!

  4. counsellorLou says:

    Such an enormous problem for our young people. Technology is an amazing tool, and its value in helping people to connect while we’ve all been separated by covid lockdowns etc has been wonderful, but the flipside of that is that people don’t always use social media wisely or kindly. I work as a school counsellor and so many of the teens I work with have struggled with cyber bullying. I’m a big fan of ‘screenshot, block, report’!

    • cheriewhite says:

      You’re so right, Lou! Cyberbullying is, perhaps, the biggest problem for kids today because it’s so harmful amd can cause suicide. Thank you so much for your thoughts in this. And you have a fellow fan here! 🙂 Screenshot, Block, and Report! 💯🎯

  5. Jaden O'Connor says:

    Hello, my name is Jaden and I am a part of Girl Guiding in England. I am fairly new to your page; however, I am really interested in the things you post. Recently I have chosen to work towards a badge on blogging. As a partof the badge, I must write about a bloggers experience with internet trolles. Therefore, if you are okay with it, please may you tell me about any past experiences you have had with trolles during your time as a bloggers and how you overcame these issues? Best wishes Jaden O’Connor xx

    • cheriewhite says:

      I would be honored, Jaden. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to do so. Yes, I’ve had a few trolls but handled them pretty well and quickly. I’ve also had trolls on Facebook and other social media as well. If you’ll give me a few days and possibly to the end of the week. I’ll work on my story in Word, then send it to you via email. Feel free to email me with your email address so that I may be able to send it to you once I’ve completed it.
      Again, thank you so much.

      Cherie

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