15
Apr/0737
Apr/0737
Cyber Bullying
Cyber Bullying, the happening new catchphrase of shock media stories and overprotective parenting alike. Increasingly the world is full of oversensitive people who can’t take a joke or any criticism whatsoever. And now the internet is getting full of them too and easily offended soccer moms the world over are attempting to coerce the internet to conform to the PC ideals what already plague other media.
You know, if your kid is going to lock themselves in their room and threaten to cut their wrists because someone on Myspace called them fat, your kid needs a sound beating with a cluestick. Forget ending “Cyber Bullying”, I’d prefer to end “Cyber Pussyism”.
Now people try to claim cyber bullying is actually worse than real life bullying. These so-called “experts” were probably bulimic prom queens and that rich douchebag who had a car and always played his guitar on the school stairs and were subsequently never bullied a day in their life. Yes I’m sure having some /b/tard spam your Livejournal is faaaar more traumatizing than having your head dunked in a public toilet. I’m sure getting called names on your MySpace Profile, which you can make private and delete comments on, is much more psychologically damaging than having your lunch tray knocked out of your hands as you walk through the cafeteria, getting pushed down in the hallway, or even having a group of kids corner you on your walk home and beat the shit out of you.
Why don’t we worry less about the internet and more about this sort of crap that still goes on every single day?
Oh but the real concern is cyber bullying is regular bullying that continues after the bell rings! Kids think they’re safe at home but the same girl who scratched you with her 3 inch fake nails that morning may now get on MSN and call you a fat cow over and over and tell you everyone hates you. Okay now this is just common sense, if you don’t want people who hate you to message you on the internet, gee wow don’t make your MSN name, your AIM name, your whatever else name public. If you post your messenger name on your MySpace or Livejournal along with all those camwhoring pictures of yourself who knows what sort of weirdos you’ll attract, the bitchy girl at your school may turn out to be the least of your worries.
In reality, cyber bullying is probably more dangerous for the bully than the bullied. I mean look at the incident with that 11 year old girl who came to be known as “Girl A” and “Nevada-tan”. A classmate called her fat on the internet and she went and slit the girl’s throat during school. That’s where the benefit of anonymity of the internet comes in. The so-called “cyber bullies” picking on classmates are retarded, cause who knows just how crazy that kid is. The joke’s on you when he or she comes to school with a gun the next day. So why risk it when there are plenty of crazies from all over the world on the internet just waiting to be laughed at and stirred up?
And that’s the sad part, in the struggle to get stupid teenagers to stop harassing each other online and off (which is never going to happen), now any criticizing, teasing, insulting, or messing with people on the internet is called into question, and falls under this superfluous “cyber bullying” umbrella. The obnoxious new motto to go along with this mentality is “if you wouldn’t say it in real life, don’t say it online”. Bullshit! The hostile and lawless culture of the internet serves a very real and very needed purpose: true freedom of speech.
I’m serious! In the “real world” we’re so oppressed by politese, we’re conditioned to smile politely at people we can’t stand, to agree with people we don’t agree with, to never point out one another’s foibles, mistakes, or idiocies for fear of getting sued, becoming a media spectacle or being forced to give a insincere public apology.
But on the internet none of that matters, you can knock spoiled brats down a few pegs, you can point out a stupid illogical statement, pointless as it all may be it can be cathartic. On the internet people are laughed at for saying “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”, and the phrase “everyone has an opinion” isn’t enough to save you from harsh criticism.
Oh, but some people are relentlessly harassed on the internet, you may say, and its wrong. You know what? Sorry to say, but some of these people really have it coming. I mean if you’re going to flit about the internet talking about how you feel spiritually linked to an anime character, or you’re going to draw nothing but Pokemon wetting diapers, or you’re just a big damn racist holy shit of course you’re going to be targeted. You need to utilize some common sense here, people. You deal with “cyber bullies” in the same way you deal with real bullies: just don’t give them the reaction they want. But, because I’m feeling generous here are some of my own tips to deal with cyber bullying:
-
Don't do this.
Have a fetish? Maybe you like to draw it and nothing but it? Be it inflation, gender swapping, furry, furry transformation, foot, tickling, or whatever your sick ass is into here’s some advice: don’t. Don’t display it anywhere online thats easy to find or is outside your niche. In fact don’t display it online at all, that’s about the only way to assure no one’s going to make fun of you for it. You could also, you know, try drawing something else.
- It’s not a good idea to go around telling people you married Sephiroth on the Astral Plane. Don’t write about it in your LiveJournal either lest you be remembered for it in the annals of time.
- Whatever you do don’t try to defend yourself at length. Going on a long, serious, indignant speech about respect or your personal credentials will just make them laugh harder.
- Don’t allow your friends, even if they have the best of intentions, to make the mistake of going on a long, serious, indignant speech on your behalf.
- Don’t write in your Livejournal, MySpace blog, or anywhere else about how sad and angry about getting insulted you are.
- Don’t know nagas.
- Don’t write self-insert fanfiction where you are the perfect, beautiful, magic-powered heroine who screws all the favorite male characters. Same goes for the fellas: don’t write self-insert fanfiction where you are the perfect, beautiful, magic-powered heroine who screws all the favorite male characters. That’s just creepy.
- Don’t take a perfectly normal children’s character and turn them into a sexualized angsty pile of shit.
- Don’t claim your soul is a dragon, fairy, elf, wolf, fox, monkey or whatever and get back on your damn meds.
I could possibly think of more, but I think those are the biggest issues. Just remember kids, if you don’t want to be cyber bullied: don’t be a spaz.
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4:41 pm on April 15th, 2007
On a funny note, some scene slut on myspace sent me a message saying that I was a fat poser. I was mildly upset until I realized that she never met me in her life, and she looked like a goddamned raccoon. So yeah. Good tips too!
4:51 pm on April 15th, 2007
I rather enjoyed your rant. It held a lot of truth. Mainly the fact that parents and kids are le stupid D:
I don’t understand how ’sensitive’ a person has to be to be really hurt if someone they’ve never met called them a ‘whore’.
The lady who was obsessed with Sephiroth still amuses me
. And yes, Mary Sue fanfics are a sin and should be wiped from the internets.
You win cookies for this rant
4:55 pm on April 15th, 2007
“/b/tard”
i prefer being called an /i/fidel…or an /i/nsurgent…
“meme-spouting, sarcastically sharp tongued, bitter and cynical lost soul who haunts the internet”
thats me!
5:34 pm on April 15th, 2007
Ah, yes, Cyber Bullying. Well, real-life bullying is still worse because of the personal level. I don’t really care about it because people really are being overly dramatic (I think they want to be an hero). “Don’t claim your soul is a dragon, fairy, elf, wolf, fox, monkey or whatever and get back on your damn meds.” But–but–SAI! Didn’t you know that in a previous life I was Mrs. Spark’lynn Nicole Sephiroth the fairy princess? I FEEL IT IN MY SOUL!!!
6:13 pm on April 15th, 2007
Cyber bullying. >
6:17 pm on April 15th, 2007
Forget ending “Cyber Bullying”, I’d prefer to end “Cyber Pussyism”.
DAMN STRAIGHT!
heh…Cyber Pussyism… I’ma start sayin’ that.
6:17 pm on April 15th, 2007
Gah, stupid comment box. Note to self: stop using that emote.
What I said in the botched comment was basically that real life bullying is so much worse because there are people all over the place that will laugh at you, people who will remember that. When you get an email or IM that’s bullying you, you can ignore it and as far as the bully knows, they haven’t done anything to you. And with real life bullying, a person actually starts to fear for their life if things get physical.
What people need to realise is that the internet never is, and never will be, serious business (unless, you know, you’re using it to run a business).
6:38 pm on April 15th, 2007
Man, if given a chance to relive my “CHILDHOOD*ANGST*” and either have all the bullying be “real life” or Online, I would choose online. I mean, I know I can be a completely different person online, so I would have the sense to tell the idiots off. Second, You can actually DELETE comments. Third, Cyber bullies tend to be really idiotic, showing how much time the really have on their hands, only to use it to try and make some person feel bad about themselves.
Really, all bullies suck, BUT if its cyber bullying and its REALLY getting to you, you should do as Dr Phil says:”UNPLUG THE COMPUTER!!”
6:53 pm on April 15th, 2007
Fuck you, I’m a dragon!
But seriously, I’ve begun hearing this “Cyber-bully” shit only recently because some butthurt asswipes discovered “OMG! Someone on the internets HATES me!!” It’s so goddamn irritating, especially when some ignorant little shit has the GALL to compare bullying to rape:
“But I know most people who bully are intelligent, they know what to say so that it’ll hurt the most, and as for taking life too seriously, that’s not true, there are just people out there who don’t like to see other people victimized for another persons amusement. It’s like rape in a sense, a victim is raped and hurt, and most humane people would try and stop it, so what makes a bully victim different than a rape victim? Both are emotionally scarred for life, bullying never goes away, it haunts you forever, and rape is also haunting. So now tell me, that this is ok for people to do. That hurting her and watching a journal come up with her saying how she’s been hurt is funny. Tell me that a rape victim telling her daughter in the car that she was raped is funny. I dare you to tell me these things are funny and that the people who laugh at one aren’t sick and the people who laugh at the other are. In my opinion both people, regardless of which situation they are laughing at, are sick.” (get the entire exchange here: http://comments.deviantart.com/4/4298393/417225414) (yes, once more a certain SNAGA has prompted this madness).
So, since these situations have sprouted up, I’ve found myself loathing the term more and more. Here’s some more wank:
http://zamiecat.deviantart.com/journal/11375461/
7:28 pm on April 15th, 2007
I would say that Cyber Bullying can be a form of Cyber Pussyism. More for the fact of that many Cyber Bullys are people that is not known to the receiver of the bullying there for they know that they can say what ever they want without problems. Then you do have those idiots mentioned above.
Quote- “I mean look at the incident with that 11 year old girl who came to be known as “Girl A” and “Nevada-tan”, a classmate called her fat on the internet and she went and slit the girl’s throat during school.”
I would go more for ending internet idiotism.
(Oh ya I earned you 40 cents.) XD
7:39 pm on April 15th, 2007
@Scarlett. Bullying = rape? Holy god, people are stupid. Of course it would be one of Snapesnogger’s fangirls XD.
9:31 pm on April 15th, 2007
The only thing that bugs me is when people use chatspeak and swear every other word, when arguing with you. I mean, it really does nothing for showing their intelligence. Well… shows their lack of at least.. I mean, yeah, I swear. It’s a habit and it doesn’t really bother me. But if that’s all you can say as far as insults go, then please, just don’t talk.
Of course that goes for on and offline, when you think about it.
The nice thing about the net is that if you don’t want to listen to something, you don’t have. Just shut your comp down, and go for a walk or play a game, or whatever just to mellow a bit. And if you’re excuse is that you can’t leave cause of your pride, then just remember that they dun know you, and you dun know them, and really you probably never will.
This rant just caught my attention because I see the signs everywhere in school. It’s annoying. Either toughen up or walk away. I learned to just toughen up and take it in stride, but I had good friends to teach me.
10:25 pm on April 15th, 2007
This reminds me when the parent’s were throwing a fit because marking a child’s answers wrong with a red pen was too harsh. They suggested purple instead.:|
I’d rather be bullied online than in real life any day. You have the option of deleting what they say, blocking them, and so on.
I don’t get the people who complain about being bullied on myspace though. How about not accepting friend requests from people you don’t know/aren’t friends with? Or better yet, not opening the messages from those people either. Problem solved.
11:43 pm on April 15th, 2007
I’m right there with you. I have a cousin who was a victim of “cyber bullying” and she changed schools. She was “cyber bullied” by people at her new school, so she moved states to get away from it.
MSNBC did a documentary on it. I sat there watching it and thought to myself the whole time “It was MySpace. Delete the comments. Where’s the actual hurt here?”
I called her up and asked her about it, and she told me that “It was so humiliating and hurtful, I just didn’t want to go to school anymore.” I told her she didn’t know bullying until the principal of your school called you a pussy bitch and didn’t stop the other kids from picking on you.
Cyber bullying, what a load of crap. It’s the internet! People adapt totally different personas on the internet because no one can do anything about it. I have a friend who would never say anything she says on the internet to people she sees in real life. She’s smart enough to pick her battles, but on the internet, what’s someone gonna do? Type down “::hitz u in da fayc::”?
12:20 am on April 16th, 2007
I think the real answer to so-called ‘Cyber Bullying’ is for them to a) learn to laugh at themselves, and b) learn to bite back.
It’s amazing what a little laughter will do a real dweezer.
2:03 am on April 16th, 2007
Some parents are just lazy and daft. There really should be compulsory training for parents to avoid this crap.
Taking the internet off kids is the worst thing to do.
It just teaches them to run away. There will always be sad little people who need to tear others down to get off.
Parents, spend some TIME with your kids, building them up and making sure they know they are valued. I guarentee you, do that and what Shithead4567 says will not registed next to what you say and your kids friends say.
I have always been sensative but my folks believed in me and valued me too so I valued myself. Those people
are unpleasant but they can’t bring me down. I know they are responding to their problems, not mine. They have their issues, I have better things to do!
There is book called How to bullyproof your kids. Guess what? Running away and hiding is not even in there. Those freaked-out parents should stop being lazy.
This only bothers them so much because it’s easier to let the computer/tv baby sit their kids and they can switch off. Not good enough. Stop letting perverts raise your kdis. Give kids a sense of being valued and they won’t be looking to internet strangers for approval. They will already have it.
3:50 am on April 16th, 2007
A thing I really hate is when parents leave kids alone with the computer and tv to babysit them all day and then they blame internet for everything.
Classmates used to have fun of me at school and I remember it was painful, but now I realize that it was my fault too because I was the one who gave them the reasons to bully me. When I was a teenager I was such a crybaby… It’s funny that using internet helped me a lot to understand people and make friends even with persons in real life
4:18 am on April 16th, 2007
RL bullying is worse, I agree. Way worse. because you, you know, actually love there and it’s impractical to just go away. On the internet you can just wander off. Plus there’s the fact that they actually talk to you and see how you act for real lengths of time so it’s actually personal and not just random mud slinging. That’s precisely *why* people are different on the interenet- less risk, so you can have your fun and then go and be tactful when you have to IRL so noone gets hurt.
Oh, and also- that picture at the top made me laugh waaay too much. XD
7:26 am on April 16th, 2007
I don’t have a problem with people who do nothing but fetish artwork, as long as they don’t chase other people around demanding it from them despite their targets wanting nothing to do with it.
There are too many people who don’t view most of their internet situations as one screen name cracking on another screen name.
8:26 am on April 16th, 2007
Here here.
I’d also rather have someone bug me on the net than in real life. In real life I can’t tell people to go fuck themselves without being looked at like I’M the troublemaker
8:40 am on April 16th, 2007
Dude, these cyberpussies need to realize that, unlike the real world, they’ve got an advantage. What’s a fat little fuck gonna do to a big kid who atomic wedgies him after school, poke his calculator at him? The internets is the big physical equalizer: hell, threatening someone physically over the internets usually incites lulz and dozens of “OOOH, INTERNET TOUGH GUY” memes.
9:31 am on April 16th, 2007
God I love your rants. So honest =D I completely agree with you on all this stuff, especially about the fetish stuff. People who draw slightly, shall we say… weird stuff shouldn’t post it if they don’t want some sort of criticism from people who don’t think the same as them. I took your advice on that when I decided whether or not to post some of my BL pictures on dA – ok so they’re in scraps, but I’m not posting any more for fear of getting disapproving comments >_>
ANYWAY. Yeah. I love your rants =] This cheered me up after a long day of extra english revision classes at school =D
12:45 pm on April 16th, 2007
This crap has been going on and on for years… what really needs to be delt with first is “cyber-victimization” People that act like complete spazzes should be taken down a few pegs. You can hardly RP online without running into someone declaring “I R bezt ev4r!” and then bitch and moan whenever anyone ever tells them they’re a goddmoding bitch-n00b. The internet is overflowing with people that are making themselves a victim!
9:22 pm on April 16th, 2007
OMG! LOL!
I totally 100% agree with everything you said! Real life bullying is SO much worse than online shit. I was bullied in High School and I am still on meds because of it. I think I got over a lot of my insecurities online. Now, I laugh when people make fun of me. Sometimes I even agree w/ them. yes, I’m overweight, I’m trying to be more active. Yes, I’m a dork, and proud of it. Yes, I’m immature, but at least I’m no prude!
People just have no sense of humor anymore, and take shit too seriously. If someone bashes Anime, get over it. I’m an Anime fan and even a Yaoi fan, people bash it all the time, and I laugh at what they say.
Anywho, I agree w/ you. ^__^
2:37 pm on April 17th, 2007
Google’s actually trying to sell me the Alphabet of Manliness.
( It’ll be dangerous! Take this! )
xD
As for the actual rant, you win the internets. Again.
If people are bitching about X on the internet, x, GET OFF THE INTERNET!
Honestly.
5:34 pm on April 17th, 2007
“667 Views”
Damn, I was one off.
Okay, I’m going to have to confess to gender bending, but I’m not the type to revert to “Cyber MAJORZ-EMO,” and slice wrists (or throats).
No one has to take me seriously, and I don’t have to take THEM seriously. It’s the internet. See that X in the top corner of the screen? Go ahead.
Click it.
I dare you.
As to the people that think “Cyber Bullies” are a problem.
Pff.
4:46 am on April 22nd, 2007
People really are oversensitive. Yes, there are some pretty nasty things said on the internet, but in the end, it’s words on a screen. Alright, rumours can start on the internet that make their way back into real life, but if you were going to be gossiped about, you would have been anyway, to be honest.
I don’t know of many sites or programs that don’t let you block people or delete their comments. If some stranger who lives half way across the world is making you cry by saying you’re stupid, block them. It’s not that hard. People are being coddled far too much.
12:42 pm on April 29th, 2007
You are so right!! Cyber Bullying is really shit! Some people really need to understand that the net is NOT a recess court where bullies are only waiting to bully poor little users!!
I never was cyber bullied of all my life on the net even though I get teased at school. Simply because I am not the kind of person who likes pokemon in diapers XD I really hope oversensitive people like that will understand how pitiful that is to worry about what a stupid unknown said about them on MySpace or whatever site…you really should be publied somewhere because your articles are really cool^
8:40 pm on December 19th, 2008
I’m stunned. There are people on the internets who agree with me on the “cyberbullying is BS” thing. There are so many simple ways to avoid crazies on the internet, and most of them involve not being a ‘tard like that guy on 4chan who posted his Social Security number. GASP, SO EASY. PEOPLE, GROW A PAIR AND STOP TREATING THE CHEEEELDREN LIKE GLASS.
I don’t think I have much of a say in this, though, even with the “aggression as self-defense” thing. I think there was a reason I got the banhammer and the (real-life) bullies didn’t.
10:36 pm on March 26th, 2009
you butt liking ass wipe shut the fuck up
10:36 pm on March 26th, 2009
i mean it
10:39 pm on March 26th, 2009
why don’t the cyber bullies stop being pussys so i can punch the shit out of them
thats because they are too much of a pussy and bullie on the internet where they can be safe
1:43 pm on November 7th, 2009
I LOVE THIS SITE!!!! GIRL SPEAKS THE TRUTH! i’m do’n a school paper on abuse, bullying and domestice violance…every site I go to info from, has facts and uses huge words that I don’t know yet (i’m only in 8th) about cyber bullying, but this one is different. The person who made this site talks like me and my friends do, and uses words that I UNDERSTAND, and talks about things that every teen my age to 18 can relate to. THANK YOU.
8:48 am on April 12th, 2010
Do you think that this cms is good for first site ?
1:11 am on June 17th, 2010
I simply wanted to say your website is one of the nicely laid out, most inspirational I have come across in quite a while. Thx!
11:04 am on August 11th, 2010
I want to tell you that you are a good writer. Awsome articles