Friday, November 16, 2012

Cyber-Bullying, Its Not Just For Kids

Ok, I know I've not posted in a while, and that is really because I didn't really feel that I had much to write about. I've not felt up to even thinking about where we go from here in relation to our fertility journey, never mind try to write about it.
This post is not going to be fertility related either, it is about something that has been bothering me recently, and is very prominent in recent times.

I wanted to write about the whole area of 'cyber-bullying'. I recently became aware of ask.fm and the very disturbing stories of two young teenagers who commited suicide because they were being bullied on that anonymous social networking site. How sad is it that two young girls, completely unconnected to eachother, apart from suffering a similar fate, should feel that they have no way out, that things are so terrible, that they took their own lives. Their pages on that site are accessible to anyone, and it is sickening to read the things that were being said to them.
When I initially heard about it, I thought some of it could be down to immaturity of the posters and an almost 'herd' mentality that sometimes accompanies puberty and being a teenager(well, if everyone else is doing it...etc), Someone even mentioned that 'kids can be so cruel to eachother', and while this is true, unfortunately it is not confined to teenagers.

A good friend of mine recently started noticing things being written about them on the internet, nasty things with no truth to them, nor any apparent agenda for them being posted... again on anonymous forums. Blatant lies that could have been very damaging to this person and their livelihood. Luckily on consultation with the forum administrator, the posts were removed quite quickly and hopefully with minimum damage, but the site admin said that unfortunately, that sort of thing was a daily occurance.

I spoke with this friend yesterday and the conversation turned to this cyber-bullying. They told me how frustrated it made them feel, how violated and unfairly they felt they were being treated, how utterly unnecessary it all was and how scary it is that anyone, anywhere can join a forum anonymously and say anything they want about anyone, with no gauge or regard for how true or otherwise the content might be.

They then made the statement that if it affected them so much, as a grown adult who is both confident and comfortable with who they are and what they are doing with their life, can you imagine how something like that could affect a young teenager, who is at such an awkward time in their lives anyway.

I've had some people post anonymous messages on this blog from time to time, some of which haven't been very nice, but I guess I've always been of the opinion that if someone doesn't like what I write.... I'm not forcing anyone to read it.

I just find the whole thing rather frightening, I can see how it happens but gosh, I will never understand why it happens, kids being mean to eachother is one thing, and while it does happen, measures should be taken to ensure that it never gets to the stage of anyone feeling that they have to take their own life over something that has been said to them online, but I will never understand why grown adults will take to anonymous forums, with no reason or agenda but to cause trouble for another human being.

I, for one, would hope that if someone had something to say about me, that they would pick up the phone, email, text, or whatever the channel of communication... and they would say it TO me, not about me on the world wide web for all to see........