Social Media:The Consequences
Now a days in our generation social media is everywhere, it is at school, at work, and we all use it in our free time. Little do we know that social media websites are the most common place for people to get bullied. Last year alone one million people were cyber bullied and yet 90% of bystanders tended to ignore the cruelty that happens.
Cyber bullying is a serious issue in our generation. People do not realize the damage they are causing the person on the receiving end of their nasty comments. Cyber bullying can be anything from posting pictures of people without their consent to spreading rumors and harassing them. The painting on the left shows the true depth of what cyber bullying is and how it effects people. The dark colours used in the painting shows the darkness of what the person is doing, in a way there trying to show us that it is a mean thing to do. As you can see in the image the black skeleton hands coming out of the screen are trying to grab her, this is a way of the artist trying to show that that the bully on the other end wants the victim to believe what they are saying about them are true, they want to hurt them.
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In addition to what bullying is there is always a cause and effect to bullying. The main reason why people tend to bully others is due to either low self esteem and they want to make them selves feel better by causing others pain or because they have some sort of issues going on in their lives. Some bullies do not understand the full effect of what they are doing to someone. Most of the time bullies think what they are doing is a joke, but little do they know that the people they are just joking about will sometimes develop disorders such as depression or anxiety because they are afraid of what people are saying behind their backs. In the picture to the left the attitude shows that when someone cyber bullies another person they think that it will not be as bad if they say it over a screen rather than saying it to their faces. What the artist is trying to portray in this image is that saying it over a screen hurts just as much as if you said it to the person's face. As you can see by the facial expression on the little boy, he is sad and scared of what the other person might do to him even though the bully is not even there. There are multiple consequences to cyber bullying to both the victim and the bully. Cyber bullying is not tolerated so if anyone is caught cyber bullying at any point in time you can be fined for harassment and if serious enough up to ten years in jail. After being bullied by someone, those horrible memories will never go way, it will stay with the victims for a long time. Amanda Todd is an example of a tragic cyber bullying incident that happened in 2012. What happened was she sent pictures to someone and he wanted more but she was not willing to give more so he made the image go viral. The picture above was taken of Amanda before she got bullied and portrays that she was a happy teenage girl due to the smile on her face, but the effects of her constantly getting bullied and not being able to make it stop made her feel that there was no other option but for her to end her life. For victims of cyber bullying or any other kind of bullying, they know how it feels to not be able to tell anyone about the situation because the victim feels that if the bully found out that they told someone, it might make the situation worse. By the victim not telling someone that they are
getting bullied it does not allow them to get the help they need and, or will lead them to develop depression. Depression is a state of low moods that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and sense of well being. These moods can cause them to seclude themselves from people and to have no interaction with others. That is why in some cases people who develop depression from being bullied end up committing suicide because they feel that it is the only escape from the pain, and that the other's lives would be better and happier if they were gone. In the image to the left, the attitude between the two people is negative because as you can see the hand covering the women's mouth is a man's hand which indicates that that man is trying to silence her. This shows the audience the way that victims feel when they are getting bullied and they want to tell someone but they are unable to because the bully is silencing the victim, and the victim knows that if they did say anything the bully would make their lives worse.
As you can see, cyber bullying is a very significant issue in our generation, especially now more than ever because there are so many social media sites that are used by teens and many more will be developed in the future. So the next time someone is getting harassed, step in and be apart of that 10% and do not be a bystander.
Work Cited
Andy. Electronic Disguise And Digital Cowardice. Digital image. Andy Barlow Blog.com. N.p., 27 June 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. <http://www.andybarlowblog.com/?p=42704>.
Cyber Bullying. Digital image. Haiku Deck. Giant Thinkwell, Inc., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. <https://www.haikudeck.com/digital-citizenship-education-presentation-SqKhO6ZO59>.
"Depression (mood)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depression_%28mood%29>.
"Depression Symptoms and Warning Signs." Depression Symptoms & Warning Signs: How to Recognize Depression Symptoms and Get Effective Help. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2015. <http://www.helpguide.org/articles/depression/depression-signs-and-symptoms.htm>.
Digital image. Photoshop Creative. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. <http://photoshopcreative.com.br/mostratrabalho/trabalhos-33416.html>.
"Legal Consequences of Cyberbullying." Legal Consequences of Cyberbullying. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2015. <http://www.prevnet.ca/bullying/cyber-bullying/legal-consequences>.
RCMP Launch Full Investigation into Amanda Todd’s Death. Digital image.Global News. N.p., 12 Oct. 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. <http://globalnews.ca/news/296621/rcmp-launch-full-investigation-into-amanda-todds-death/>.
This is a very prevalent issue in today's society. It is one of the reasons why I don't use social media sites any more. There are just too many people out there who abuse the anonymity involved. I think the main reason that cyber bullying is such a big issue for so many people is that there is no way for victims to get help. Or at least it is a sensitive enough issue that too many people are too shy to ask for help. Can you think of any ways that we can allow victims to receive easier access to help?
ReplyDeleteWell I know that now a days people are trying to come up with websites now that you can unanimously report cyber bullying. They also have Kids Help Phone (1-800-668-6868) where you can call someone and talk to them about your problems and see if they can give you advise on what to do in the situation you are in. In order to make it easier for victims to receive help I feel that the only way is for them to talk to someone that they trust, and in most situations they feel like they can not trust anyone, but we are not able to help them unless they are willing to receive help. The resources for victims are out there, but they need to reach out to us in order for us to help.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a very good topic because cyber-bullying affects many teenagers. I think that the reason for this is that we (as teenagers) are so drawn to social media, and feel the need to spend hours a day on it, that it's almost impossible to ignore negative or abusive comments. People say that in order to avoid cyber-bullying, we should just stay off of social media. But is it not our right to be able to access social media, along with other websites on the internet and not be subjected to negativism and hate? One of the main problems teenagers face is accepting the fact that we need to find help, in order to deal with certain situations. Bullying being one of them.
ReplyDeleteI agree that being on so many social media sites all the time makes us as teenagers more vulnerable to getting bullied, and although we should be ale to go on these sites without worrying about what people are saying behind our backs, our world is not perfect and it happens almost everyday. Thanks Melani for the feedback.
DeleteOne of the problem in todays society, especially our generation is how addicted people are to social media. Also the negative side effects on how addicted people can get to social media. I believe one of the main reasons people cyber bully is because they think that they are able to get away with it, without anyone knowing it was them. As demonstrated in your first image how the dark shadow side is still anonymous yet bullying the girl. The shadow also demonstrated that since the shadow figure does not have distinct features it can be anyone. Do you think they will come up with a better solution to try and stop this?
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that the reason of why they tend to bully people over the internet instead of face to face is because they feel that they will not get caught. In today's society there is so much technology that allows people to find out who did things. I think that since cyber bullying is becoming more and more of an issue they will start coming up with better ways to prevent this from happening such as higher privacy settings. I really like our take on the shadow in the picture and how it demonstrates the bully being anonymous. Thanks for the suggestions and ideas.
DeleteI thought this was a very good topic to choose. Social media is so universal, cyber-bullying can really affect anybody. Many people today say that they have seen such a decline in bullying in recent years and I think part of this is because a lot of it happens more online now than before so its under the radar. And I think that's a problem because sometimes victims of cyber bullying become scared to speak up and since it's quite under the radar no one knows and it just continues. I also feel that even though social media can be a good thing being connected with old friends and family, but it can also be just equally as bad- if not worse. You went really in depth with your image analysis showing a very strong connection of your ideas. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that people tend to bully more on the internet rather in person. As i said to Tessa, people are starting to come up with ways to prevent cyber bullying from happening as well as trying to find out who did it.I like your ideas and thanks for the feedback.
DeleteAs social media sites continue to grow, more and more issues arise within the sites. Many people think that they can just hide behind a screen and bully someone because there are minimal risks involved so they can't get caught and the person they are bullying does not know who they are. This leads to victims of cyber bullying being scared to go online and in the most extreme cases leads to depression and often times suicide. Sadly many people are scared to admit they have been cyber bullied and never ask for help. I believe that as a society we need to stop cyber bullying and make it easier for the victims to get the help they need. Great presentation.
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