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Effects of cyberbullying among teenagers
How bullying affects adolescent development
The effects of cyberbullying in teenagers
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Suicide is an issue in society that comes up almost weekly. Whether the person kills themselves or if they receive aid, from a doctor or a friend, in killing themselves it is still suicide. How can we justify our hatred and judgment towards suicide when we do not fully understand the persons reasoning behind committing suicide? Is it because we are apathetic towards their pain or is it because we feel guilty because we could have prevented it? How many people do you personally know that have committed suicide? Did you automatically blame them for the pain you feel because of their death or did you stop to consider that they were going through so much pain that they could think of no other way to end it. I will support the claim that suicide is not always selfish and it needs to be treated with more understanding than most people are willing to give.
In the last four years two suicides on the news have stuck out to me and showed me that suicide is not as black and white as we make it out to be. Phoebe Prince and Megan Meier’s are two young girls who committed suicide because they were subjected to cyber bullying and bullying in public. In the Article “Phoebe Prince, 15, Commits Suicide After Onslaught of Cyber-Bullying From Fellow Students” by Pete Kortz he discussed how Phoebe Prince was an immigrant from Ireland who just started her freshman year in a Michigan high school where she was subjected to constant bullying, stalking, and harassment by girls ranging from 16 to 18 year olds because she dated a football senior. She did nothing wrong yet the constant bullying finally got to her after one of her bullies drove by her and threw an empty energy drink can at her on her way home from school. That day Phoebe hung herself becaus...
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...llnesses that really affected them making them believe that suicide was their best option. While there are some people who commit suicide with the intention to hurt someone else that is normally not the case. However, it is true that if we are truly close to the person who committed suicide that it will leave an everlasting mark on us. We cannot judge someone who has committed suicide at face value and we need to dig deeper before we even begin to think of passing judgment on them. If we are not accepting of others mistakes and flaws how can we expect others to be accepting of ours?
Works Cited
Hawkins, Kristal. "Megan Meier: Mistaken Myspace Suicide." Crime Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014.
Kotz, Pete. "Phoebe Prince, 15, Commits Suicide After Onslaught of Cyber-Bullying From Fellow Students." - True Crime Report. N.p., 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 14 May 2014.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Martin Luther King Jr. knew it was better to speak up than to stay quiet. This is a lesson that needs to be taught throughout both middle schools and high schools. All around the world, suicide rates are going up, and most of these cases relate back to bullying. The children often do not say anything because they are afraid the bullying will only get worse. When nothing changes, they are driven to suicide to relieve the pain that they are feeling. As Marge Piercy examines in “Barbie Doll,” students are picked on for being or looking different than others. No matter what type of bullying it may be, it hurts people more than they are willing to let on. All forms of bullying, whether it be in schools, physical, verbal, or online, have an impact on teen suicide ideation.
My friend, Kevin, was just two short months away from graduating high school, but he never got to see that day because of bullies. No one had a clue; he had a remarkable family and a great group of friends. He did everything he could to leave a smile on everyone’s face, and he earned the nickname, “Cheeks,” because of his huge, friendly smile. No one understood why such a cheerful person would want to take his own life, but it was because bullies harassed him for months, and no one knew. According to the Center for Disease Control, “Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year” (Bullying and Suicide). Bullying is an ongoing issue that seems to evolve rapidly, and the world of
Suicide due to bullying has been given the name of bullycide. One example of bullycide would be Jon Carmichael from Texas who was bullied so harshly that “one day they stripped him naked, tied him up, and stuck him in a trash can, and they taped it with their cell phones and put it all on You Tube” per his mother’s account (Texas Monthly, Hollandsworth). A few days later Jon was found hanging by a rafter from their barn after committing suicide. The perpetrators of this abuse were his fellow classmates and it is reported that “60% of boys who bullied others in middle school had at least one criminal conviction by the age of 24; 40% had three or more convictions” (van der Valk, 41). Bullying behavior not only negatively affects the victims that are singled out and tormented, but from a legal perspective can lead to long term criminal
Having the beliefs instilled in me by my family makes me see it as such regardless of the hardships the victim faced. I have come to this style also from the article “The Morality of Suicide” it brings in so much information on the subject and give great advice on suicide prevention methods. The bottom line is communication is key to saving lives. If more citizens had someone to just talk to them and not openly criticize them to the point where they feel like they aren’t wanted or welcomed on this earth there wouldn’t be nearly as many deaths. The victim also deserves some of the blame at the end of the day, no one forces anyone to kill themselves it is a conscious decision to kill yourself out guilt, pride or whatever the case may be. Our purpose on this earth is to strive and endure everything being thrown at us for the purpose of growing and learning
We should be concerned about youth suicide because it is easily preventable, but yet it occurs frequently. Bullying is one of the more common reasons someone would come to suicide.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Bullying is a prevalent issue in school communities across the world which has caused great damages to the bullied. In fact, suicides is one of the leading cause of deaths in students 10 to 14 years old and the cause of suicide was overwhelmingly from bullying. Bullying is pervasive amongst all age groups; statistics show there is an estimated 1 in 7 students grades K-12 who are being bullied. Social media is increasingly becoming the new medium for bullying where anonymity allow bullies to be as toxic as pleases them. So what good solutions has our schools came up for this? Nothing, most students agree.
Should the suicidal be viewed as selfish for committing suicide? In a way the choice of suicide was selfish because the person left behind many loved ones and family. Although they left their loved ones behind, they also got to leave behind their depressive feelings and thoughts: They finally got to experience freedom.
Each year, schools are having to update the Codes of Conduct in order to keep up with the bullying that is occurring on social media. Schools have failed to effectively monitor and take action upon what these students have been doing to others and what others do in return. This has resulted in many lost lawsuits, in which schools were held liable for not taking appropriate action on what occurs outside of campus. School districts therefore must take more responsibility over what happens to the students, on and off campus. Districts argue that such instances are outside of the school’s control, however these victims are still their students. In the case of Ryan Halligan, a teenage boy who committed suicide at the young age of 13, Albert D. Lawton
Bullying is a major problem in our society today, especially among teens. Bullying can be found in many forms, such as, direct bullying, which is considered kicking, hitting, making cruel comments, or threats. On the other hand, indirect bullying is spreading rumors, or excluding someone from a group; most of the time indirect bullying is done by females. Another form of bullying is cyber-bullying, which is done on the internet, social networking sites, email, or texting. This has become a very popular form of bullying over the past few years. Also, hazing is considered bullying. The term hazing can vary from singing an embarrassing song to extreme physical torture (Rees 24). Hazing is mostly done in sports and in social groups. The term “bullying” is considered a verbal or physical action that causes physical or psychological harm, is repeated over time, and occurs in a relationship of unequal power (Waters 7). Some people think that bullying does not lead to suicide, and that bullying is just a natural part of life. However, bullying, in many cases, is leading to suicide.
Suicide is a much bigger problem than society will admit; the causes, methods, and prevention need to be discussed more openly. Committing suicide probably sounds like a foreign idea to most people, but to the people who think about it, they deal with it every day. More importantly, the question is what leads people to kill themselves? In general, most people do not want to actually kill themselves, even though many people joke about it on a daily basis. Being human, we all have a certain amount of will to live.
The playground bully is a classic figure in the life of children. Shoving, pushing, pinching, name-calling, and dirt-throwing are some of its favorite pastimes. In the modern world, however, bullying is moving to another arena, one much more sophisticated and secretive than the jungle gym. Bullying that takes place online, or cyberbullying, is a growing area of concern among the younger generations. Recent events have thrown cyberbullying, rather unceremoniously, into the spotlight. After being relentlessly tormented online for ten months, Rebecca Sedwick, a twelve-year-old girl from Florida, committed suicide by jumping from the roof of a defunct concrete plant on September 10, 2013. Two teenage girls, Katelyn Roman and Guadalupe Shaw, both older than Rebecca, were charged with felony aggravated stalking upon further investigation into Rebecca’s death. These charges were dropped the week of November 18, 2013, with prosecutors unable to compensate for “a lack of evidence” (Kemp). The controversy over saddling minors with a felony charge caused quite a stir in the media. The correct response to cyberbullying is a growing area of contention. In some cases, criminalization is preferred, while other bullies are slapped on the wrist and grounded for a month. What can be agreed upon is the need for a definitive policy. Cyberbullying, as a burgeoning field of abuse directed specifically at teens, requires direct, speedy, and, perhaps even harsh, measures to curtail the stream of mistreatment flowing freely online.
...kins, Kristal. "Megan Meier: Mistaken MySpace Suicide." Vengeance — — Crime Library. N.p., 17 Nov. 2007. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
Before students only had to worry about being bullied at school, but due to technology advances and the use of social media, teenagers can be bullied twenty four- seven. Cyberbullying causes a huge impact on students and when they are too busy with the anxiety of being bullied their grades can suffer or they can even drop out. According to HealthDay News, 9,590 students were surveyed from 580 U.S. schools. Compared to kids who were not bullied, students that were cyberbullied experienced a 0.049 drop in their GPA between grades 9 and 12. This number is too big when you think about the potential students have but the constant bullying by their peers on social media effects that. For some, dropping out or taking the bad grades feels like their only option. Some teenagers that get cyberbullied on social media can’t take the constant criticism, which can lead to suicide. An example is Hannah Smith, a 14-year old student from England. Smith had been on ask.fm, a social networking site that allows people to ask questions anonymously. Cyberbullies urged her to drink bleach and cut herself. Eventually she couldn’t take the bullying any longer and committed suicide. Social media has a huge impact on these suicides because it’s through these websites that these teens are being bullied by other students. If teens don’t stop soon the side effects of cyberbullying
Often times when I heard the word "suicidal" I was curiously caused the person to do it. Growing up, I heard that people decided to commit suicide was because they "wanted attention, they wanted the easy way out, they were weak, they couldn't handle life, etc." Personally, I have significant people in my life that have felt like they wanted to commit suicide. So, this topic honestly is a difficult, yet, emotional one to discuss.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” These words have been repeated countless times, but they are not accurate. In truth, words can kill. Bullying has become a highlighted problem within our society, and bullying in the school systems is even more prominent. According to the news, there are countless cases of bullying, many of which do not have happy endings. The rates of suicide due to bullying are currently higher than they have ever been before. Suicide is the third top causes of death in young people within the United States, averaging at 4,400 deaths a year, with over 50% of these deaths as a result of some sort of bullying. Studies also show that there are 100 suicide attempts for every one successful suicide performed (“Bullying and Suicide”). These numbers are disturbingly high. Bullying is affecting more kids in ways that some adults may never understand. The fact that words and actions can lead to cutting and suicides is still a distant concept to some and needs to be brought to immediate attention. Laws are now being put into place to prevent these tragedies, but what is really being done to prevent them within the schools or even within the students’ homes? There is a lot of finger pointing when it comes to this topic. But we all want to know what the cause is behind this nationwide crisis and who is responsible for it.