Technology has provided many benefits for teens across America since coming into existence. Social media usage has exploded across many users creating new threats to the public. Threats of cyberbullying are relatively new for many individuals who have not had access to the internet or social media platforms before. It is incredibly important to warn and educate the youth on the dangers in order to reduce the harm and mental damage caused by cyberbullying. It is my hopes that this post finds itself being shared around teenagers as well as students attending college who find themselves wrapped up in social media. The rest of this blog post is designed in order to help and prevent teens and others who might find themselves in such an unfortunate situation having to deal with cyberbullying in one way or another.
The youth need to be stronger and more active advocates for the prevention of cyberbullying. I believe that once people understand the horrible negative effects it can have on people, the more they are inclined to help others and reduce the problem as a whole. It is very easy for teens to communicate with each other and share the message about cyberbullying. Another potential way to reduce the chance of cyberbullying to taking place is to stay off of your phone as much as possible. It has been found that there are risk factors including how many hours a child spends on social media per day as well as sharing social media passwords with fellow friends. This is a very simple yet effect way to take preventive measures. It might be hard to put your phone down but in the grand scheme of things it could potentially benefit one greatly. Schools should be educating their student about simple ways to prevent other from becoming victims to such a horrible thing. Students should be taught how to identify if one of their fellow peers us currently facing struggles with cyberbullying. Some of the symptoms include user hiding their phone screens away from the eyes of others in fears that they will be seen. Having an individual l delete his or her social media account one which platforms can also be a tell-tale sign that someone is experiencing cyberbullying. Witnessing individual having emotional breakouts or other irrational and unprovoked emotional responses might be caused by social media situations in which the teen is being cyberbullying by others or a group. It is a big red flag and warning sign if someone increasingly starts to miss social activities or functions when they would have attended in the past. When cyberbullying takes place, people become afraid to be in public because of anxieties caused by others bullying.
Wouldn't everyone want their communities to be safe and free of bullying? I know at myself as the author of this post would back anti cyberbullying measures in hopes of keeping my loved ones out of harms way. It is very important that we make our communities as safe as possible for teens in order to give them the best possible future that is filled with success. Students and other individuals have a very hard time completing life and doing well in school when they are dealing with the stress and depression that comes along with being cyber bullied. The horrible effects caused when someone goes through such a traumatic situation can last for years down the road or even permanently . It has been reported that chances of getting depression are significantly increased after one is victim to cyberbullying. This sadly can lead to higher chances of suicide or other harmful outcomes that should be avoided. New social media sites are being created every single day making the internet an even more dangerous place than it was before. Society would benefit greatly if they were able to reduce the number of people who experience cyberbullying which would improve the lives and mental health of many youth.
Sources:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740913003472.
https://www.ted.com/talks/vincent_parsons_cyberbullying. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4126576/.
