The Internet has Changed Bullying

Many people around the world now have access to the internet. Teenagers use the internet for many reasons such as socializing, education, and to maintain personal and professional relationships. However, some teenagers misuse the internet for wrong reasons such as cyberbullying and racisms through social media. Teenagers should only be allowed to use social media only if they are using it the appropriate reasons. Cyberbullying and racisms happen even to this day because of immature behaviors that teenagers do not realized could cause an effect.

There should be a limitation with social media to prevent cyberbullying and racisms. Social media is a bad influence for teenagers. What is social media? Social media is a websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. However, social media is being used in ways that shape world culture, education and more. Teenagers are often harassing each other through the media. Phoebe prince hanged herself because girls in her school reportedly called her a “whore” and a “bitch” viciously harassing her in person and on Facebook (Holladay 1).

If you are not careful, unscrupulous people can target you for cyber bullying and harassment on social sites. By partaking in social networking sites, you are opening yourself up to cyberbullying, lack of productivity, mental health issues and lower grade. Even though there might be several good people out there, there are lots of bad people as well. There are also chances that someone could go online and post an inappropriate picture of him or her that is taken out of context. What might seem innocent enough soon becomes the focus of everyone’s jokes and harassment toward the person. You cannot control what other people post online. Normani Kordei, a member of the girl group on the rise of Fifth Harmony wrote, “I’ve not just been cyber bullied, I’ve been racially cyber bullied with tweets and pictures so horrific and racially charged that I can’t subject myself any longer to the hate” (Hess 1). Racists used inappropriate words and pictures to insult her. Social media has become the easiest platform to insult or harass someone. Teenagers do not take cyberbully seriously. Cyberbully is the negative use of technology to harass, humiliate, and threaten people. Life project found that 26% of teens have been harass through their mobile phone either by calls or text messages.

Phoebe's reasons for taking her own life were complicated, she struggled with depression and had even attempted suicide once before (Holladay 4). Social Media makes bullying easier for those who are afraid to face to face bully. Lots of teenagers bully their friends by making fake social media account or emails which is easier rather than in person. Also, the adolescent is also a transitional phase where teenagers become vulnerable and have to deal with emotional and physical changes. At this phase it’s hard to deal with what is right and what is wrong. Most of the children do it for fun and relaxation. Teenagers think they can be anonymous on what they do on the internet. Cell phone has been banned in 69% of today’s classrooms. The reason is obvious, students will misuse them to cheat, use textese in place of Standard English, cyberbullying and sexting (Thomas and McGee19). Due to the excess use of social media grades of teens are dropping down. Teenagers have admit being using social media during homework reduces the quality of their work. The students who used social media while studying scored lower on tests. Most of the students are found spending time on scrolling through the memes and gifs rather than studying and doing homework. Teachers of classroom fears that cell phones may make it easier for students to engage in certain inappropriate behaviors (Thomas and McGee).

Majority of the posts are extremely insignificant and unimportant to our world. Social media is a negative impact for teenagers. Hess stated on her article the “Ghostbusters” star Jones temporarily quit twitter after weathering a deluge of racist abuse (1). There racist abusers are teenager’s fandom of the certain bands group. Social media has teenagers spending countless hours sitting in front of a screen scrolling through other’s people’s lives instead of being productive. Zayn Malik, a member of one direction was being threaten with death and slurs like “terrorist” from the so called fans (Thomas and McGee 2). This comments that teenagers make are so ridiculous. Racisms is not right, and it is never right to call other names. Yet, no actions have been taken with issues like this through social media. Sexting has become common among teenagers. One in five teens have reported sending a nude or seminude photo of themselves to someone in text message (Thomas and McGee 21). The average teenager spends a minimum of 2 hours and 20 minutes on social media every day. One in five teens have reported sending a nude or seminude photo of themselves to someone in a text message (Thomas and McGee 21). The use of emoji has also become the new trend of cyber bullying. Emoji’s of middle finger, gun, children face with bandages and many other can be used for bullying (Froeschle 383).

Teenagers do not know the impact of what they post or send. At some point someone will search for your name and what shows up can sink your reputation. Teenagers must know they are making a choice every time they engage with social media. Slangs words are used everywhere because teenagers think using slang words is easy. Many people, educators included, believe that text ease is destroying the student’s ability to write which can affect students writing skills. Social media has teenagers spending countless hours sitting in front of a screen scrolling through other people's lives. When teenager sees a picture of someone that has passed away on Facebook, instead of calling and asking, they just type “RIP” and a crying emoji. This tells how social media has taken over their communication skills. Many teenagers start to pull away from friends and family in their daily life because they are so caught up in what is going on in the lives of the people they are following on social media. There is always a race between friends that who’s going to post the best status or a picture in a social media and receive lots of comments and likes. A person might be benefit from it, another person could end up being hurt by it. The consequences of misusing social media will not benefit anyone. Bullying and being racist to someone is a crime. The mean girls, along with two male students, face charges for allegedly bullying phoebe (Holladay 4). Not only is social media misleading, its time consuming as well. Taking a step back can open your eyes to the realization that nothing your friends are going to post will affect your life in the long run. Avoiding social media can be very difficult.

Especially in a situation where one used it daily. It’s a very challenging task even though one person might benefit from it greatly, another person could end up being hurt by it. Social media allow students to post statues, check in at locations, and post pictures. Teenagers can make their own profile special to them by identifying their interests, and personalizing other features, however social media can be very unsafe. Research done on 18,834 students ages 12 to 18 from 49 schools in a Midwestern state proves that “The support of family members and friends can help teenagers to deal with the bullying and various mental health problems” (Knopf). The frequent numbers of family dinners and communication with them will help children to relief the bullying stress (Knopf). Therefore, there should be a restriction on what teenagers can post, write and tweet on the social media. If the social sites detect teenagers misusing it, then they should be immediately reported. Social media should ban anyone that is using slurs, bullying and racisms. Social media should be used to communicate with one another not to end someone else life. Taking a step back can open your eyes to the realization that nothing your friends are going to post will affect your life in the long run.

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