Saturday, February 5, 2011

Bullies Versus Victims: War with Words

In the famous rapper, Eminem’s song “Words are Weapons,” he declares, “my words are weapons, I use ‘em to crush my opponents.” In this song, he is describing his tactic of dealing with people who doubt his talent. However, these lyrics can also apply to the way bullies treat their victims. Mean spirited words and actions may not seem a big deal to the people who aren’t the victims of them. When a group of girls wears black on one of their classmates birthdays as a “joke” for example, they might not think about the outfits ever again. Their classmate will remember the hours spent crying in the guidance office forever. People remember avoiding the cafeteria because they weren’t welcome at any of the tables. It doesn’t go away like school goes away after graduation. People remember every piece of food thrown at them when they dared to venture into the cafeteria. It’s the people doing the throwing who are quick to forget. Bullying behavior like this used to be limited to happening in person or during the dreaded prank and devious 3-way phone calls. 


The arrival of the Internet and the social-networking pages has made bullying into a widespread epidemic. When people are online, they can take on personas that are completely different from their real identities. This means if they were already acting mean in person, the comments will get more vicious, the jokes will get more cruel and the victims will get more hurt. A computer screen is like a shield for bullies; it makes them feel invincible. Suddenly, instead of having the burden of saying their abhorrent comments out loud, all they have to do is furiously type these verbal atrocities on a keyboard without facing any person or any consequences. As soon as people recognized the power that the Internet had given them, it became evident that bullying in person and over the phone was merely the calm before the storm. Hurtful instant messages and emails only take a few minutes to send, but people who receive them keep them forever. The publicness of the Internet allows bullies to broadcast their tormenting to further humiliate their victims. Not only have these victims suffered severe damage to the ego, but everybody knows about it.

The technological advances in bullying caused people to fear showing their faces at school. It’s enough that they already have been called a loser, or whatever creative insult some bully managed to come up with, online. Having to see the people who have been tormenting you when you have been disarmed of your confidence can be traumatizing. The severity of this emotional damage goes unnoticed by most; most people can be found hysterically laughing through the genocide of their peers’ self esteem.

Most of the bullies barely even know their victims. They have no idea if they are torturing someone who already suffers from depression. The worse kinds of bullies know that they are dealing with someone who has depression and use the depression as a weapon. It reaches the dangerous point of bullies knowingly or unknowingly taunting people who are suicidal, causing them to have even less of a desire to live.

This became more disastrous with the advent of Facebook, a page that may have been paved with good intentions, but created a whole new world for bullying. Facebook profiles contained a wall where friends could publicly communicate with each other. Unfortunately, bullies had a different use for this wall than friendly conversation. The wall welcomed bullies to taint their victims profiles with public, painful insults. People have the opportunity to comment and contribute to these epithets. More recently, Facebook users were given the opportunity to click “like” on Facebook postings. This means that even if one mean person has the idea to post “you have no friends in real life, so it’s funny that you have so many Facebook friends,” on somebody’s page, 50 other people can click “like,” indicating that they agree. The comment and “like” features also are available for people’s pictures that they have posted on their profiles. A person can log onto Facebook in a perfectly good mood and log off feeling ugly, friendless and worthless. It’s a wonder many people have difficulty succeeding in English classes, but can come up with such creative adjectives to use when publicly abusing someone. As if the verbal abuse is not enough, bullies have also discovered the art of exploiting their victims’ pictures to deepen the wounds that they have already inflicted.

Facebook is not the only place on the Internet where behavior like this occurs. The bullying epidemic became more contagious when people started to use pages such as formspring.me. Those pages allowed users to either make comments or ask questions anonymously. Although this may seem like it has potential to bring people closer together, it got ugly very quickly. People asked invasive, personal questions and posted heinous lies on these pages. This may seem harmless or juvenile, but it really is a war with words. People have resorted to suicide due to unnecessary bullying, and bullying remains an ongoing battle. People have started to take legal action as a result of irreparable damage caused by bullying. It may sound like the days of kindergarden tattletales, but it’s a serious matter. Without increased legal involvement, bullying will continue to damage and destroy innocent lives. 


15 comments:

  1. You know what is sad? It is not just the kids. I am co-creator of a page on fb,Abolish All Cyber abuse-Stop the Hate. In hardly any time, we have nearly 120 "patrons". I am friends with others, who have similar pages, same result. One of my harassers is a Grandmother in her 60's, the other, is a 40 yr old mom of a teenager. RELATIVES of mine.

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  2. Wow... that is REALLY disturbing

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  3. It doesn't just happen to kids I'm afraid. It is my belief that it won't be long before most of us have been or are victims of cyber abuse or bullying. I also think it will become obvious who has been bullied and who hasn't by the profile name. Cyber bullies take away their victims' identities far too easily.

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  4. Video on bullying in public schools:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoUIHIjB0Io&feature=related

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  5. Aww Poor Robie Parnell, she is NOT a victim. She has tormented and harassed the people she is accusing for 3 yrs. Go figure, typical bully... once outted they cry victim.

    There are emails, postal mail, and several other factual documentation to prove what she has done to these people. Don't for one second let her fool you. She will be exposed for who she really is. Not a victim that's for sure.

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  6. Anonymous... HAZEL HIGGINS and or RACHEL CHRISMAN...A fine example, as they are stalking me & harassing me, they have been for years. Generally they will follow me,and start posting derogatory and personal information. It continues until I feel threatened and cornered.I lash out, so then they have their "proof" what I have done.((?)). They've been blocked, but they like to hunt for me in the third-party section, so then the blocking feature for facebook does not work. They lost their 'hate page' created to make me miserable. It will never end, until the day I die, and then the sickos will have something to laugh about for years.

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  7. The jokes on you Robie!! Stalking you?? That would be like stalking a Slug. It's Robies way or no way right? Robies opinion is the only one that counts right? Wrong!!!Just myself have 5 folders filled with your trash. You want it your way. you are the only one who has an opinion. You HAD 7 sisters and 2 Brothers. Some fell for your crap. Others was older and wiser. And who lost their "Hate Page"? As of a few minutes ago, it was still up and running. YOU , Stop the H8, And your Abolish all the Hate page HAS BEEN BLOCKED from our group. You try to torment someone with your fake aliases . Well it won't work anymore. BUSTED!!

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  8. Does this disturbed person not know this is being shared? Talk about making a fool of yourself.

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  9. Joke? This is sick. Does annonymous not know this is being seen? who would brag about having a hate page???

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  10. YOUR hate page............YOU are a TRUE definition of a BULLY! Controlling Bully too. Why do you think MOST in the family never kept in contact with you? Our Anti-Bullying,stalking,hate page is for ppl to deal with the likes of you. You push until you get a reaction then cry when you get caught. Stupid,stupid,stupid. Act 54 not 4.

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  11. This is an on-going attack that needs to be stopped. I am asking the person who has it posted on her page, to remove this link, this garbage needs to stay in the shadows. This type of HATE is what we are fighting...anonymous needs to SEEK HELP!

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  12. At the expense of the young lady who wrote this, this link was removed from circulation. It should not have been used as a weapon to harass. Hazel Higgins, you demonstrated the hate that you carry for your sister.Your hate page was taken off, because of what it was. Do you not SEE that? You have folders, of what? Doesn't harassment actually have to have happened, to be a reality? Your being told endlessly, to LEAVE THEM ALONE, does not constitute harassment. Replies to your comments from a yr ago, do not either. You save folders, of answers to YOUR actions, statements, and endless photos. How about discussing WHAT YOU DO......

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  13. LMAO!! You are So funny!! Who the hell are you??? NOBODY!!!! The endless notifications, emails and smut that YOU was in on. You, and ALL of the HATE and phoney tribe because I defended Someone that lost her mother, and Best Friend. I wasn't going to let you push her off the edge. And I will till I take my last Breath!! Our STOP THE HARASSEMENT & Bullying Page is STILL UP AND RUNNING. And WILL BE!!! YOU AND YOUR TRIBE are NOT Allowed on the page. Apparently we have hit a nerve of truth and you all don't like it. As far as the folders I have, I was told 3 yrs ago to screenshot and save Everything that is deragotory in posts and email. So they have their own "Special" place to be posted when the time is right.All these "aliases" have been either taken off or blocked. You run your pages and we will continue to run ours. IT IS NOT SHUT DOWN!!!! I will post something on our wall to prove it to ANYONE! You ALL really need to grow up. you live such a miserable life that you all have to torment everybody else? What has that gaines you so far??....... NOWHERE! NOW GROW UP! LEAVE US ALONE!!

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  14. anonymous is a hypocrite. They are using this innocent post, to attack a facebook member, that has them blocked. she is bullying and a cyber-abuser. THIS is their page..http://www.facebook.com/pages/Coalition-to-STOP-Cyberpaths-Internet-Harassment-Faceook-Abuse/129539720439568
    embarrass yourself more...this is not your page, so no, you don't have the right to sneak behind anonymous and trash innocent people. Looks good for your page, huh?

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  15. Anonymous should be required to use her name-Hazel Higgins. She is co-administrator of page..http://www.facebook.com/pages/Coalition-to-STOP-Cyberpaths-Internet-Harassment-Faceook-Abuse/129539720439568
    If you are going to impose on this blog, the hate that you feel for my mother, then you should at least OWN IT, and not hide, like a coward. Reading this has been disgusting, and oddly enough, a perfect example of what the blog is trying to display: A war with words. HOWEVER, the war is one-sided, an assault on a victim. The only person hiding, not using their name, has been the attacker-Hazel Higgins.

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