Cyberbullying

I think I first encountered cyberbullying when I was in about the 6th grade. My family had just gotten a desk top computer and AOL. I remember I was really obsessed with boybands (especially *NSync) and would sometimes go into the NSync AOL chat rooms to talk with other girls about how cute we thought JC was (ha ha). Anyway, occasionally, other users from the Backstreet Boys chatroom sometimes ventured into the NSync chatroom to cause problems. They'd usually talk about how much NSync sucks and that BSB (Backstreet Boys) were so much better. And then sometimes they'd make personal attacks like, "All the girls in this chatroom are dumb and suck." Lolz. I remember girls individually IMing me to call me names, etc. Sometimes, I retaliated and went into the BSB chatrooms and did the same thing. This is a pretty silly example and nowhere near as serious or as horrible as other instances of cyberbullying, but I think it still constitutes as bullying.

Cyberbullying means harassing someone through the use of technology. Cyberbullying is such a huge problem because of the anonymous shield that technology provides. A person can hide behind their technological devices and even make up fake personalities and identities. With the lack of accountability, people are able to be cruel, brutal tormentors and, a lot of time, get away with it.

Cyberbullying is scary because there are no boundaries. Because we live in such a digital age, I can be unprotected from bullying no matter where I am, even in my own bedroom.

Later in high school, cyberbullying became a problem on social sites. I remember almost every single person at my high school had a blog account on xanga.com. One of my friends had created a fake blog for one of the administrative faculty members at our school, similar to the parody that was mentioned in the article "Cyberbullying: Is there anything we can do?" There were several parody blogs that popped up in high school. One of the administrators found out about her fake blog site, and then Xanga was blocked at my high school.

I think I am ready to confront this inevitable issue in my classroom, especially since I've had countless experiences with cyberbullying as a Digital Native. It is an issue I plan on talking about in my classroom. I will find ways to incorporate character education in my curriculum, and this can be done by using cyberbullying as an example because it is often incredibly harmful and painful. I think students bully as a way to externally express pain that they feel on the inside. It's important to get to the root of those problems and having team building and respect building activities in my classroom will be important for students to learn to respect each other and, importantly, themselves.

I think my instructor Micaela was correct when she said that a lot of times, students don't know what they should do or how they should behave. As educators, we can't just assume that students know how to treat others with respect, kindness, and acceptance because maybe they haven't had the opportunity to learn these values in their homes. We are responsible, as teachers, to help our students practice these values.

The most difficult part about cyberbullying is how limitless it is. It's happening all the time, especially outside school grounds. It unrealistic for educators to be solely responsible for preventing and stopping cyberbullying because we can't be expected to go into students' personal accounts or into students' homes. The family and the community must be involved in eradicating cyberbullying if we want to successfully prevent it.