Essay topic: Social media can lead to cyberbullying, and this can cause dangerous effects.
Did you know according to British charity ChildLine children reported 4,507 cases of cyberbullying in 2012-13? Compare that to the 2,410 cases in 2011-12. Cyberbullying is on the rise, but what is the cause for cyberbullying? Social media. Almost everyone has social media these days. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have become household words, yet is it all coming with a price? Social media can lead to cyberbullying, and this can cause dangerous effects.
Cyberbullying can cause some pretty serious mental effects if you are already insecure with yourself, struggling with depression, etc. “These effects include (worsened) depression, isolation, insecurity, and most recently FOMO (fear of missing out), and in the worst cases; death by suicide.” I don’t think social media is worth any of these horrible mental effects. No one is doing anything or even trying to change the cruel ways of social media, and it is a problem. How many of your friends don’t have Facebook? Have you ever even really thought about the dangerous effects of social media? It’s already taken lives, and it’s gone far enough. In this day and age, technology is becoming everything. Need to check the time? Check your iphone! Need how to know how to get somewhere? Use your iphone! Want to take a photo? Snap a high quality photo right from your iphone! With all the new apps, websites, and games, more people are signing on then ever. According to TNW News, “People are still adjusting to all the new technology.” The social media websites are too much of a good thing. People can say whatever they want with no repercussions, and people can live a life of fantasy on the
internet, pretending to be their someone their not. ”So if you take roughly 1.2 million Facebook users, and 450 million people suffering from mental disorders, what do you get? A global pandemic that’s showing no sign of slowing down soon.” -TNW News
According to TNW news, “Tallulah Wilson was just 15 years old when she took her own life back in 2012. The gifted ballerina created an “online fantasy”, of a “cocaine-taking character”, and began uploading photos of self harm on a social networking site, Tumblr.” Online, you can say anything to just about anyone; including mean things. A lot of people say things they would never have the guts to say in person. According to TNW “After being blackmailed on Skype, Daniel Perry, a 17-year-old from Scotland, jumped to his death from a local bridge. Daniel was harassed often on his Ask.fm page, with commenters telling him to kill himself and that he should cut his throat. He was then tricked into Skyping with someone he was told was a girl his own age and then blackmailed with screenshots by the anonymous users.” This is cyberbullying, and can cause people (especially teenagers) like Tallulah Wilson and Daniel Perry, to end their own lives.
About half of young people in the US have experienced some form of cyberbullying according to cyberbullying research center, “Ten to 20 percent of those people experience it regularly.” Have you ever been called a mean name on the internet? If so, you’re not the only one. I have been personally attacked on social media websites (Facebook). A Lot of people don’t understand that what they say and do on the internet can have serious consequences. “Eighty eight percent of teens being surveyed said they witnessed people being “mean or cruel” on social media websites.” Shockingly, 1 in 5 of those people admitted to being that “mean or cruel” person on the internet.
There are a few solutions to this problem. The first is to stand up to bullying whether it’s online or in person. If you or someone you know is being bullied, you should tell someone immediately. A lot of people don’t tell anyone because the bullying might get worse, but from personal experience with bullying, nothing really helped but getting help from a trusted adult. You can also call Safe2Tell (the number is on the back of your school id!) Another good solution is to start spending less time on the internet and social media websites. You could start off with just cutting out 10 minutes of “social media” time and do something more productive/creative. Reading, writing, drawing, studying, making things, and painting are all good ideas to do instead of spending time on your social media websites. Another solution is to be nice on the internet. Just remember there are real people behind the profile that have feelings.
Social media can have dangerous effects, and we should all take a stand against cyberbullying. Take action to prevent cyberbullying and start spending less time on social media. It gives you more time to do productive things, it's refreshing, and better for your well being. Many people have experienced the effects of social media and cyberbullying, and it’s time to make it so nobody has to go through it again.
Works Cited
"The Dangerous Impacts of Social Media on Mental Illnesses." TNW Network All Stories RSS. N.p., 10 May 2014. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
"The Media and Self Esteem." - Applied Social Psychology (ASP). N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
"Multimedia Journalism Class." » Social Media: Cyberbullying and Teen Suicide. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
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