Bullying On and Offline

Warning** This post expresses my personal feelings, and many will not like what I have to say, nor 

like the statistics I am about to show you. Believe me when I say, this isn't going to be a "happy" post. 

By the way, I've also posted this onto another blog, so don't get confused or anything...

It is proven that one out of four teens are bullied, nearly 160,000 students stay home each day because of the fear they might be the next victim of bullying, and 282,000 students are physically attacked each month. This isn't a myth, its REAL.We all know this as bullying, whether being the victim or the bully, we've all suffered pain from this harassment.

As sad bullying might be, it never goes away, no matter how many bullying preventions are created, and it doesn't even stop there. 77% of students have been bullied, and sadly, every 7 minutes a child on a playground is bullied. Its a growing problem in our society.

Another form of bullying is something we all have seen, and its known as cyber bullying. What is cyberbullying exactly?

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, cyber bullying is defined as "The electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person (as a student) often done anonymously." Although, cyber bullying doesn't happen just in kids (like the definition described), it can happen to any person of any age, race, or ethnicity.


I'm bringing bullying to my attention because I've noticed so many remarks on stardoll, however most go unnoticed, or the victim virtually stabs their bully with a mean reply. Today I came across one of the most well known blogs on stardoll, and that's Underneath Stardoll. More than half the comments are bully-related on this top-notch blog, now isn't that just sad?

Its one thing to hear about it, another to physically see what these people are doing to us. Lets take a look at the comments (majority are anonymous, and if they are a certain user, I will be blocking their name from the comment to spare feelings).

Its not just on Underneath Stardoll, its all over the internet, but lets just keep it focused around stardoll. Need some more visuals? Lets take a virtual walk down misery lane.

Did you know 25% of us online will experience cyber bullying (Think 1 out of 4 people)? And 56% of us experience cyber bullying through social networking sites such as facebook. Why do bullies target us into making ourselves feel awful? According to STOP cyberbullying, this is what they have to say:

"When it comes to cyberbullying, they are often motivated by anger, revenge or frustration. Sometimes they do it for entertainment or because they are bored and have too much time on their hands and too many tech toys available to them. Many do it for laughs or to get a reaction. Some do it by accident, and either send a message to the wrong recipient or didn't think before they did something. The Power-hungry do it to torment others and for their ego. Revenge of the nerd may start out defending themselves from traditional bullying only to find that they enjoy being the tough guy or gal. Mean girls do it to help bolster or remind people of their own social standing. And some think they are righting wrong and standing up for others."

No matter how much we try to avoid it, it still happens. According to education.com, if you get bullied, you may experience and/or be at risk of anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem, poor social self-competence, depression, psychosomatic symptoms, social withdrawal, school refusal, school absenteeism, poor academic performance, physical health complaints, running away from home, alcohol and drug use, and even suicide.

Now would you want someone to suffer any of that? THIS IS WHY bullying is wrong, and THIS IS WHY bullying should be stopped, and THIS IS WHY you should never, ever tease someone, or hurt them physically or mentally.

Did you know over 14% of people have thought about attempting suicide, and 7% have attempted suicide?

If you bully someone today, tomorrow you could be ending their life. How would it make you feel if you were responsible for ending a precious human being's life?

Just ask yourself why. Why would you put a person's life in jeopardy just because you thought they were weird, strange, ugly, or just needed to stop being so happy all the time?

Why?

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Credit to:
http://2011bullyingprogram.weebly.com/bullying-statistics.html
http://www.creepsquash.com/blog/tag/cyber-bullying-statistics/
http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_What_Happens_Over/?page=2
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110314201339AAWHjTO