Cyberbullying

With the recent release of the new Netflix show “13 Reasons Why”, I decided to really think about the current state of bullying and specifically “cyberbullying”.

I often hear from friends and acquaintances that “there is no such thing as cyberbullying”. The common solution is to just turn off your phone or close your laptop. Is it really that simple? Is there actually evidence that cyberbullying exists? Do we need to be concerned about such?

I think the bigger question is, what really is cyberbullying? I truly do not believe that the above definition is the clear true definition of cyberbullying. Personally, I have never experienced such hostile messages nor do I know anyone who has. Every once in a while you see the viral thread of someone sending racist or crude messages on some sort of social media platform, but that seems to be more of a rarity in todays social climate. The prominence of virality seems to make people really think about what the say online.

Although, is this the only suitable definition of cyberbullying? Maybe there is more to the basic definition cyberbullying. Today, society is so obsessed with social media, specifically memes and “roasting”.

Memes and roasting I think can be considered cyberbullying when brought to an extreme. If you are constantly mocking or humiliating someone for something they did or said, that can get to someone. It is not about having thick or thin skin, eventually people get tired of being the punchline. I think that society is somewhat oblivious to this. A lot of what goes viral today has to do with making fun of someone’s actions. We are all guilty of this, especially in close groups of friends. This may or not be something that needs to be addressed, but maybe we should tone it back somewhat.

I think that the majority of people understand that “roasting” someone is not personal and is meant to be playful or funny. Although, like I said before, sometimes these funny jokes may get under someone’s skin and cause them to feel bullied.

Cyberbullying is an extremely complicated subject to really understand, there is so much that can be considered cyberbullying. There really is not a fine line that separates jokes from harmful posts. There probably will never will be a line that separates the two, and that may or may not be good for society.

Cyberbullying has such a subjective definition that causes people to be affected in many different ways, as we saw in “13 Reasons Why”.