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Cyberbullying affects many people every day. According to the website StopBullying.gov around fifteen percent of high school students, had experienced cyberbullying last year alone. That’s a pretty significant percentage. Teens today are so focused on how to attain the highest position on the social ladder that they don’t think about the repercussions that will happen as a result of their willingness to be popular.
The topic of cyberbullying is not something many people want to cover. Most people aren’t aware of how prevalent the topic of cyberbullying actually is. Recently, a new film titled, "Unfriended" which made its way into theaters this month, is about the horrors of what can happen when someone is cyberbullied. This movie covers how a group of friends are participating in an online Skype call on the day of the anniversary of their friend Laura's death. The character Laura got very drunk at a party and there was a disturbing video taken of her in that state. The video quickly went viral around her school and all over the internet. This was not the only bullying Laura encountered throughout high school. She was constantly being cyberbullied and people kept on telling to kill herself over and over. Unfortunately, Laura fed into their constant bullying and name calling and sadly ended up taking her own life.
This movie is a great first step in having a teen audience become more frightened as to what can happen when they cyber bully, someone. Yes, obviously this movie is more exaggerated and dramatized but it still gets the message across to the young viewers whom this movie tends to appeal to. Cyberbullying is deadly and it's something that happens everyday to everyone. This movie is not only bringing some type of an awareness to the horrific act. but its a movie that the producers knew that would appeal to a younger teen audience.
I can relate to this because I was cyber bullied when I was in middle school. I was in the sixth grade and the person who I thought was my best friend quickly turned out to be someone I can’t even make eye contact with now. She sent me nasty text messages, wrote mean Facebook posts, and always bombarded me in the hallways at school with her group of friends. This experience definitely made me stronger and showed me how evil a person can be when they are typing behind a simple screen.
Recently, to bring more awareness to this topic Jimmy Kimmel, had teenagers read mean tweets about themselves out loud on camera. At first, the audience laughed but as the tweets got nastier the audience began to silence themselves. This I believe brought awareness to how prevalent cyberbullying is in today's society. By Jimmy Kimmel doing this and bringing awareness once again to this growing problem, made people think twice about how their words can impact others lives. These bullies act in a different persona and they become someone who doesn’t care about how they hurt others. Although this movie and this video on Jimmy Kimmel is not going to change people's views dramatically, it can give many people a look at the horrors of what cyberbullying can do. This is just one step in starting to bring awareness to how dangerous cyberbullying can be, and the guilt of what the horrific aftermath can be as a result of people's actions.
Sources:
Anti-Cyberbullying Poster
I like this article, you managed to address a problem in our society that just seems to get worse as technology progresses. I would suggest you to use other evidence to support your thesis, maybe providing quotes in the movie that indicate cyber bullying, and posting some picture of the movie itself to make the blog more appealing.
ReplyDeleteI think you are addressing an issue that is often overlooked in society. One criticism I have however, is the lack of action suggested for common people. The Jimmy Kimmel information you present is good and something I enjoy however, it is not something that just anyone can do. How can we as a society address this problem on an individual level?
ReplyDeleteI thought your criticism of ability to cyber bully in our society was great. I too have seen many instances when people are getting called out or fighting over the internet and things get taken to far. Some many times, bullying like this gets over looked because the poeple with prominent enough roles to stop it ar enot reading these posts until they are brought in by a concerned peer or parent. I think you could have mentioned a little more about how the movie and Kimmel thing tie together, but I love you saying that things like this may make bullying less of an issue, because it is instqances liek this that are hard to tackle. When done is a funny or very serious horrific way, some people might realize thier voice behind a screen has some consequences.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you addressed the topic of cyber bullying through a scary movie. Cyber bullying is really scary and people don't really realize what they are doing most of the time until it is to late. The internet is so prominent in today's society that I think cyber bullying will be a very difficult thing to stop, but looking at it from the prospective that something really scary could come from is taking a step. I hope that the film industry continues to make movies like this, so that hopefully one day we can end cyber bullying. Great review, definitely a conversation starter!
ReplyDeleteI think you did a very good job of addressing this problem. I would say that cyber bullying is definitely still a problem in today's society that most people overlook. It's so easy for someone to sit behind a screen and talk badly about someone, and that's probably why most people do it. The ones doing it usually are insecure about themselves so they put it upon others in negative ways. That stage in middle school when everyone gets facebooks and cellphones is usually when cyber bullying starts. I know when I was in middle school my friends and I were all obsessed with our facebooks and we would sit on them for hours finding friends and talking to friends. With such easy access to other peoples pictures and pages it was easy for people to say hurtful things. This has still been going on today with especially with yik yak. This is completely anonymous and people say what ever they are feeling and it can really hurt other peoples feelings. I don't think a lot of people realize how their words online can have such a great affect on people, but bringing this issue up from time to time is always a good reminder to help solve this problem.
ReplyDeleteCyber bullying is still a big problem in todays society and keeps getting worse as new apps start to come out. The only thing i'd add would be more visual aid, maybe a video of an example of cyber bullying? Overall, nice job i enjoyed reading this blog.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting perspective. I feel like as technology continues to progress, we have to teach youth about the harmful damage cyber bullying can bring. A video example would have been great, but using the movie "Unfriended" was a strong arguing point. It certainly has a message fr youth. We as a society have to do better overall in treating each other better, whether that be face-to-face or behind a screen.
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