Cyberbullying

Acts of bullying are nothing new to the average high school student. Almost everyone can remember when Chuck gave Larry a wedgie in elementary school. But as they laugh it off, most are unaware that acts just as hurtful and as embarrassing still affect many students in high school.

As technology progresses, the Internet has opened new doors of interaction and sharing of thoughts in the form of social media websites. This online way of interacting has enabled bullies to discover new forms of bullying, which incorporate harassment and name-calling through anonymity.
The ability to hide behind a computer screen has become a new and powerful tool for cyberbullies.

According to the National Crime Prevention Center, over 40 percent of all teenagers with Internet access have reported being bullied online during the past year. Th rising number matches the fact that 59 percent of Internet users use at least one social networking service, compared to 34 percent who did in 2008.

Some social media websites such as Tumblr and Formspring allow users to comment and interact with others without exposing their identity, thus enabling them to have the option to hide behind the mask of anonymity. This has become a powerful tool for cyberbullies as it allows them to say anything without having to risk dealing with the consequences of being discovered.
“When you are anonymous it’s easier to insult people, because no one knows who you are,” senior Ethan Ming said. “You can say whatever you want and get away with it.”

Sources show that cyberbullying acts have the ability to change the personalities of their victims. Over half of the cyberbullying victims who are either in elementary, middle or high school tend to deal with low self-esteem, aggression and isolation as they are being bullied.
Anonymous users often use websites such as Tumblr and Formspring to insult, provoke and instigate negative actions that build off one another, creating a space where numerous bullies attacked a single person.

Senior Madison Clousing is a victim of anonymous cyberbullying at the school this year. Early in October of last year, Madison encountered one of the most shocking and fascinating moments of her life yet: She discovered that she was expecting a child. Knowing that having a child in high school would be a challenging and unusual experience in her life, she was aware that people would talk about it frequently. Madison was then bombarded by hurtful comments and questions on Formspring, a website that allows users to ask questions with the option of being annonymous.
“When I first found out I was pregnant people said a lot of mean and hurtful things through Formspring, and it made me reconsider being able to keep [the child] because they made me feel less of a person for keeping her and that I would suck at being a parent,” Madison said.
Madison is just one of the victims in the cyberbullying world of today. By being aware of the consequences of cyber bullying, we have the ability to think before we act.

It is important to know what cyberbullying truly is and the damages it can do to those who are being bullied on the Internet. Sometimes it is necessary to put ourselves in their shoes.

Next time before deciding to post a dirty comment on some one’s wall, an inappropriate picture, or an anonymous comment, think about the ones who have been harassed and been ostracized because of such acts. The ability to type a degrading comment and click anonymous does not make one powerful, but rather a coward.

“In high school people already talk about each other behind their backs, and these sites are just providing somewhere that people can be mean directly to them without them ever knowing that it was them,” Madison said. “I think that it’s stupid, if you have something to say to someone then you should just say it to their face.”

Online Identity

Reddit

On a typical Saturday night, junior Kyle Evans reclines in his computer chair, clicking the evening away. On his browser, multiple tabs are open with familiar titles of categories such as funny, Technology and science.

Kyle is the moderator for a portion of the website Reddit, which calls itself the front page of the Internet. His job is to listen to user complaints and respond to them, as well as make rules for what type of content people can post.

Site content often ranges from politics and science to inappropriate jokes and hilarious images. Posts can receive comments, or upvotes (the Reddit equivalent of Facebook likes) for the material. Along with his moderator duties, Kyle actively participates in this community through posting on the website and conversing with other users.

“It’s a good way to share content you think other people should see, either because it is funny or it is informative,” Kyle said.
The part of Reddit that Kyle moderates is full of comic strips, commonly known to the Reddit community as rage comics. Users can take premade faces from the Internet and then add text to create original comic strips. They often make fun of different aspects of society or present a message that viewers can relate to.

“My favorite subreddits are AskScience because it’s informative, … gaming because it’s entertaining, and ‘Star Wars’ because watching them bash the prequels is hilarious,” Kyle said.

Although he is part of other social media communities, the content he enjoys on Reddit gives him opportunity to express himself freely in the humor aspect.

His interests on the website provide a rough outline of who he is in reality. As his friends may know, Kyle is interested in the sciences and is a fan of the “Star Wars” saga. Kyle can also be hilarious, playing jokes and tricks on his friends or saying funny quotes from shows and movies. For Kyle, humor is a large part of his identity, especially on Reddit.

“[Reddit] definitely does provide an outlet for dark humor,” Kyle said. “There is a separate culture there than at our school in the variety of jokes.”

Tumblr
While Kyle may be laughing at a user’s rage comic or listening to user feedback, junior Jacqueline Liu spends her time blogging on the website Tumblr. Jacqueline has two separate blogs on the website: one for things that she finds funny and the other for pictures.

She posts images and text relating to her interests and personality. For example, her blog with images and photos is an expression of her interest in photography, which grew from taking photography classes in her freshman and sophomore years.

“I don’t really need to think about what other people think [about me], I can just reblog anything I like,” Jacqueline said.

Jacqueline can write posts about any topic or post images of anything that interests her and not be afraid of peer criticism. Furthermore, the only people visiting her blogs will be people who enjoy the same material that she does. No one will judge her material.

This freedom of expression is what makes sites such as Tumblr and Reddit so popular.

“On Tumblr, nobody knows who you are and nobody will pass judgment if I reblog a thousand sports things,” Jacqueline said. “People won’t criticize me by saying ‘Oh Jacqueline’s not athletic, she’s just a wannabe.’”

Yet the website isn’t the only important component to creating an online identity. Users, whether they are peers or complete strangers, help shape online identity as well.

If Reddit didn’t have science fanatics or hilarious users, Kyle wouldn’t use it as a medium to define his online identity. In a similar fashion, if Tumblr lacked the beautiful images that Jacqueline loves, there wouldn’t be incentive to keep blogs on the site. All material used to define themselves comes from other users with the same interests.

This is how social media sites are built up from the ground. Users gather on a creative website and share information that then attracts others. While the website may be the canvas to create an online identity, it is the people on the website that encourage others to paint a portrait.nk [about me], I can just reblog anything I like,” Jacqueline said.

Jacqueline can write posts about any topic or post images of anything that interests her and not be afraid of peer criticism. Furthermore, the only people visiting her blogs will be people who enjoy the same material that she does. No one will judge her material.

This freedom of expression is what makes sites such as Tumblr and Reddit so popular.

“On Tumblr, nobody knows who you are and nobody will pass judgment if I reblog a thousand sports things,” Jacqueline said. “People won’t criticize me by saying ‘Oh Jacqueline’s not athletic, she’s just a wannabe.’”

Yet the website isn’t the only important component to creating an online identity. Users, whether they are peers or complete strangers, help shape online identity as well.

If Reddit didn’t have science fanatics or hilarious users, Kyle wouldn’t use it as a medium to define his online identity. In a similar fashion, if Tumblr lacked the beautiful images that Jacqueline loves, there wouldn’t be incentive to keep blogs on the site. All material used to define themselves comes from other users with the same interests.

This is the basis of online identity and how social media sites are built up from the ground. Users gather on a creative website and share information that then attracts others. While the website may be the canvas to create an online identity, it is the people on the website that encourage others to paint a portrait.

Unplugged

It’s a daily routine. After coming home from a tiring day of school, instead of opening up a textbook, I open up my laptop and quickly log on to Facebook, instantly drawn to the three notifications glaring at me in bright red. They want to be checked. And I have to check them. Checking notifications turns into prowling through people’s profiles, liking and commenting on pictures and statuses, and chatting with friends. Two hours later, I’ve only finished a single paragraph of my essay due tomorrow. It’s not just a daily routine, it’s an addicting one.

Social media, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, video chatting, isn’t just a procrastination factor, it’s an extremely tempting one. With just a click of a button, it opens the portal to the cloud: writing on people’s walls, tweeting and hash tagging, posting and reblogging pictures—all defined by the red notification icon.

So I decided to take a break from all this, just to see how much I, an individual of a society that’s constantly “plugged in”, would survive off the grid. It was a challenge: two weeks without any form of social media; my only communication was limited to my home phone and email.
The first few days were hard. There was a constant itching feeling telling me to check Facebook or reply to texts; I mean, no one was going to find out right? I spent my first day constantly going to the home screen of several social networking websites and typing in my username and password, but closing the tab. I wasn’t going to cheat.

The next day I gave in and logged onto Facebook, only to find out to my dismay that I really hadn’t missed out on much. Yes, someone was in a relationship, one of my friends had changed their profile pictures and there were albums from the dance on Friday night, but none of it really mattered, to me, at least.

What does a “like” on a photo or a status actually worth? What about a comment or a new follower? I couldn’t find a good reason. And with that, I vowed I wasn’t going to log back on; I wasn’t going to become dependent on a notification.

Afterwards, I wasn’t tempted to log back on or switch on my phone. Call me a hermit or antisocial, but I definitely enjoyed it.

For the rest of the 12 days, I adopted a new routine, one that didn’t consist of coming home and delving into a social portal. I relied on friends and treasured real conversations during lunches and brunches to keep me “up to date” and “in the loop.” Even though, day by day, I had become less interested in logging in, what interested me the most was watching my friends obsess about things that had happened on Facebook or talk about the newest blog they had started following. To me it was irrelevant, but I found it ironic; two weeks ago, that was me.

I hadn’t taken into consideration how much we think about social media and how much of an influence it has in our lives; social media had become something prosaic in my world. Without it, still I was living in a world that was incomplete.

Online Relationships

Students often join social networking sites because of friends—and then discover a whole new form of friendship. Whether anonymous or not, whether followers on Tumblr or friends on Facebook, friendships over social networking can be anywhere from meaningless to emotionally rewarding.
One site which fosters relationships between users is the blogging site Tumblr. Tumblr allows users to follow other blogs, and students often form friendships with the people they follow.

Junior Emily Cheng has both given and received advice over Tumblr. One of the first people she talked to was a “follower” of her blog.
“I was just browsing through my dashboard and she was having a really, really, bad day … and I messaged her and we kind of talked about it briefly and … eventually we started talking a little bit more,” Emily said. “I think she kind of liked talking to somebody about her feelings.”

Tumblr friendships like Emily’s, in which friends know each other’s URLs and interests but have never spoken in person, are fairly common. This allows Tumblr users to speak openly about their feelings without fear of repercussions in their daily life, something that’s harder to find on sites like Facebook.

“It’s really different from talking to a friend that you see every day, ‘cause … he or she could judge you so much easier, but in this case you could just say your true feelings and be honest and not be afraid of it,“ Emily said.

Junior Manaz Sharifi prefers it when her blog gets attention from people she doesn’t know.

“I don’t really like that much sympathy from people I know because I don’t want to seem like a person who craves attention,” Manaz said. “If people [who] you know see your Tumblr you kind of hold back on what you want to say.”

Manaz has Facebook and Tumblr, and recently had to deactivate her Twitter (which she is trying to reload). She said that although she likes that Facebook allows her to communicate with her family who lives far away, she generally finds it pointless, as it’s becoming more complicated to use while making it easier to stalk people.

Manaz said that some of the main differences of the sites had to do with how interactions with strangers are perceived.
“[On Tumblr] people who don’t know you, they follow you [and] it’s fine, on Facebook it’s considered creepy and then on Twitter it’s just random,” Manaz said.

Manaz only follows back when she’s genuinely interested in a blog, which has helped her find people with similar interests.

“If their blog is kind of like mine, I feel like I do have a connection, like I found this one blog that’s a lot like mine ‘cause she kept reblogging my stuff, then I found out that she was Muslim and it was fasting time so we’d talk about that,” Manaz said. “So it’s kind of cool because then you can find people more like you on Tumblr and connect with them that way.”

Sophomore Madeleine Colbert has Facebook and Tumblr. She has also bonded with people on Tumblr over shared interests, such as social justice, as well as shared experiences and senses of humor.

“On Facebook, you really become friends with anyone that sends you a request, even if you do not know them that well,” Madeleine said. “You are able to keep up with their daily lives through updates, but I tend to have a lot less direct communication with them on Facebook and in person.”
Because blogs showcase people’s interests, it’s easy to connect over shared passions.

“It’s almost like your blog is a part of your personality, so [if followers like your blog] it means they like you,” Emily said.