Bullying Through Social Media

The act of bullying through social media has the potential to publicly humiliate and degrade a person’s reputation to the point of the victim causing self harm or even committing suicide. Bullying through social media is an inescapable torture to its victims. Victims can not run away from the hateful tweets, texts, posts, and messages the online bully sends. The repetition of mean and hurtful messages can change the way the victims think about themselves and destroys any self confidence they once had. Although the victim can ignore the negative feedback from the aggressor, the posts are often seen by other school peers which leads to the spread of gossip and digital pile on. All of the negative attention takes a major toll on the victim and

Rebecca Sedwick was a Florida teen who fell victim to cyber bullying as well as physical bullying. She would constantly receive hateful messages from online sites such as facebook and ask.fm. These messages dove her to cut herself and inflict self harm. The bullies proceeded to physically hurt Rebecca and continue to add to the buildup of emotions for her. Rebecca finally could not take it anymore. The terrible online posts which degraded Rebecca and the physical pain from getting assaulted was all too much for her. She committed suicide to escape the pain and torment of the bullying. This is a scenario that no child should ever endure. In this case, the schools failed to help Rebecca, which made her feel all alone in this uphill battle. There was no place for her to turn for help. She needed help yet the schools did nothing. Schools need to set up a defined process for victims of cyber bullying to get the help they

This situation becomes a the school’s problem because the social media bullying affects the student’s academic potential and must be fixed as soon as possible in order to allow the student to attend school and learn in a safe environment free of harassment. Communication between the victim, parents, and the school is crucial in order to help the student as much as possible and improve their quality of life in and out of the classroom. A beginning of the year cyber bullying speech should be given in schools in order to show the school acknowledges cyber bullying while establishing a sense of being comfortable with telling school staff and parents about online harassment. Catching the problem early is also helpful in dealing with cyber bullying. This is true because the longer the torment is left untreated, the more likely the student will continue to hold the emotions in. This can have negative results because if the victim allows the emotions to build up, eventually they may cause the bully victim to make an irrational decision. Victims of bullying through social media need a structured process which will aid them in dealing with the hateful messages and posts