Does this blog give me a greater power to bully someone? If I post on Twitter or Facebook, am I more willing to write cruel things about people I go to school with?
The answers to these questions are yes and no. Sure it would be a lot easier for me to spread rumors and lies to hundreds of people within a matter of minutes. But the solution to this problem isn't to get rid of social media and the problem isn't technology.
In Danah Boyd's book, It's Complicated, she talks about how parents and adults assume technology is the problem for teens being bullied. A lot of times parents don't see the real truth behind what they assume to be cruel posts.
I remember one day in high school when one of the guys posted a video on Facebook that was compiled of many videos of a girl who was the target of jokes. The video became popular really fast and soon had its own group on Facebook. The school found out about the video and took it down immediately, punishing the guy who posted it. Yes the video was down, but I remember continuing to see him make jokes in school.
I agree with Boyd because even though the use of Facebook caused a huge uproar, but the bullying would have occurred with or without it. I believe that social media can't be blamed because there is so much good that comes from it and instead I feel we need to focus on solving the problems and going straight to the bullies.
I agree, I think that rather than putting up boundaries or limitations for teens we need to consult the problem directly and rather than tell teens "don't go on Facebook if you don't want to get bullied" we need to tell teens more in depth: "don't use the Internet as a tool to enhance bullying". Currently there are small movements that inform teens about why they shouldn't bully, but there are still so many people that don't ever even learn about it.
ReplyDeleteDo you think though, that if a more active campaign was implemented to reduce cyber bullying that bullying that occurs offline would decrease as well?