Orantes-Sanchez 1

Kenia Orantes-Sanchez

English 113B

Professor Lawson

12 May 2017

Final draft

Word count: 1750

Why Cyber-Bullying is Serious

Social media can be both a blessing and a curse. It can be a blessing because it has its

many perks in keeping up with the family and your friends. It can be a curse because having a

social media account is like having another responsibility in being careful what you post and by

posting one wrong thing there can be many consequences. There is different types of reasons

why someone has a social media or why they always online. Many people use social media to

connect with their family thats far away. When having a social media account you can do these

things like video chat, audio chat, and chat through messengers for free. Then some people use it

to shame one another or use it in a way they feel more powerful towards the person they are

bullying. Cyber-bullying can happen to anyone in any age group weather they are kids, teens,

and adults. We are all humans we all feel pain, depression, anger, sadness, and many other

feelings. The people that are on social media the most would be the teenagers. Cyber-bullying is

something very serious that can affect a person physically or mentally. Which can lead to

depression and maybe even worse suicide. I believe that people who cyber-bully should be given

heaver fine and community serves hours.

Cyber-Bullying is very common it can happen in everyday life. Cyber-bullying is

something that involves the use of technology such as cell phones, tablets, and computers. By
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having one of those tools you have access to social media sites, text messages, chats, and

websites to be a part of. Things that are considered cyber-bullying is sending a mean text,

starting rumors online, posting embarrassing photos or videos, websites and making a fake

profile. In a recent article I have read is called Cyber-bullying on rise, particularly among teen

girls states that, The number of girls reporting incidents involving bullying or harassment on

websites and social networks increased by 10% while incidents targeting boys increased by three

percent. This suggest that girls are easier to target, which is true because since we are girls

there is many things we cannot do. For example we cannot sit with our legs closed, we cannot eat

messy, we always have to have manners, we always have to dress nice, etc. Since we are women

there is always a certain way our body should look r how we should have it like in magazines

and how we have to be skinny. So by showing that it makes a women have low self-esteem

because we are not skinny enough and we dont have enough boobs or butt. Guys body shame

girls all the time by saying how we should look and how they think a girl with a nice body

should look.

In a book I read called So Youve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson, this book

talks about many tragedies that has happened in the internet to people. In the first chapter

Ronson talks about what happened to him. Ronson states that someone was impersonating him

on social media. Ronson says, when I noticed that another Jon Ronson had started posting on

Twitter. His photograph was a photograph of my face. (Ronson 1) Ronson had found out that

someone was posting things that he would never say which made him very upset. This fake

account was made by three scientist that were doing an experiment. Ronson decided to do

something about this fake about and use social media to do something about it. The way Ronson

used social media was by telling and showing the people online that the other Jon Ronson was
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a fake account by doing that many people started telling the three scientist that they should die

and other horrible things. I believe that Jon Ronson should have just been the bigger person and

just posted something on his account saying that he was the real Jon Ronson and ignored the

other account. No one deserves to be told horrible things online especially saying something like

you should die. What the scientist did was wrong as well they should have asked Ronson if they

can experiment something by using his identity and see if it was ok. In the book Ronson also

talks about a girl named Justine Sacco in the 4th Chapter that said something that she didnt think

racist at the moment and then got fired from her job and got emotionally and physically hurt for

saying something she shouldnt have on the internet. This proves that we should always watch

out on what we post or say on social media because it can come back to haunt you.

Cyberbullying is something that change someones life forever. In an article called

Cyberbullying Is a Serious Problem." It states that One easy answer when it comes to any form

of bullying is to tell victims just to ignore it. States that just ignoring a text or whats going on

online doesnt help it from coming back to that person or getting bullied by it. It always comes

around whether they turn off their phone or not its still on the internet.

In an article I read called REVIEW: 'Audrie & Daisy' reveals deep wounds of social

media says, They follow the experiences of two teenage girls a one from California, one from

Missouri. Both were sexually assaulted after they passed out from drinking. Audrie Pottas assault

was recorded and shown around her California school. The footage of Daisy Coleman was

deleted. But word-of-mouth, in both cases, was brutal. Once people have seen the video or

photos they start talking about them which becomes worse. One of the girls could not take the

bullying and decided to take her own life. No one should have to want to take their own life

because of what people say or do. This is why people have to be heavily fined what they say and
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do. The person that recorded had no right to be showing that video around to the whole school

they should have just showed it to the police.

Social media is a place where you have to think twice before you post something because

you have no idea how it can affect your life or the other persons life. Whenever someone does

something bad there is always a consequence that goes with it. A person that is being cyber-

bullied can lead them to do many things like alcohol, drugs, skip school, grades drop, and have

low self-esteem. In an article called Cyberbullying Creates Dangerous Stress and Anxiety by

Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin, they state that, First, many targets report feeling

depressed, sad, angry, and frustrated. As one teenager stated: It makes me hurt both physically

and mentally. It scares me and takes away all my confidence. It makes me feel sick and

worthless. Cyberbullying isnt a game there are people that take their own lives because of it.

People that have been cyber-bullied have either tried to take their lives and have failed or

succeed.

In a movie called Cyberbully a girl bullied online. They would call her names and will

whisper in the halls when they would see her. Then turns out that the anonymous person that has

been harassing her online was her closet friend. This proves that even the people that are closest

to you can stab you in the back. Even her parent couldnt see how much she was hurting. This

girl was so hurt she tried to take away her life and failed and now she is over coming her past.

Being cyber-bullied is something that looks and feels horrible. To the fact that our own parents

wouldnt know what would be going on in our life until it becomes more serious such as suicide

or little signs.

Cyber-bullying is something very serious that can scar a person for life. There is a chance

that someone who is cyber-bullied can change that persons life or always make them feel like
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they are not enough anymore and it will be something that they will always remember. It can ruin

their reputation, their self-esteem, and it can hurt them mentally and physically. Cyber-bullying

someone should not be something to be happy about or even think it makes you look cool. Social

media can be used for with good or bad it all depends who is behind the screen. Given the fact

that many things happen to the victim proves that we need to be more serious about this and fine

everyone who cyber-bullies. If there is more consequences in cyber-bullying someone, then

people will think twice before even writing something to insult or hurt someone else. Having

heavier fine and doing longer community serves hours makes a point on the person that what

they did was wrong. I believe that people that cyber bullies should have more consequences

because when the administration finds out that their students in high school and middle school

harassing or spreading rumors about other students they usually just give a warning to the

students that is doing the bulling. This causes the students to most likely bully again because they

know that cyber bullying in their schools doesnt not have strict punishments towards cyber-

bullying. So doing so people need to be fined and have to do some community services and have

it suck on their record of what they have done.

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Works Cited

Biname, Charles. Cyberbully Common Sense Media.17 July, 2011. Fil

"Cyberbullying Is a Serious Problem." Internet Safety. Ed. Hayley Mitchell Haugen and Susan

Musser. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. 78-86. Issues That Concern You. Gale Virtual

Reference Library. Web. 24 Oct. 2016

"Cyber-bullying on rise, particularly among teen girls." Economic Times, 5 Aug. 2015. General

OneFile, libproxy.csun.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?

p=ITOF&sw=w&u=csunorthridge&v=2.1&id=GALE

%7CA424158162&it=r&asid=619908decbe1df76b1909bfc14204807. Accessed 26 Apr.

2017.

.Hinduja, Sameer, and Justin W. Patchin. "Cyberbullying Creates Dangerous Stress and Anxiety."

Does the Internet Increase Anxiety? Ed. Tamara Thompson. Farmington Hills, MI:

Greenhaven Press, 2016. At Issue. Rpt. from "Cyberbullying: Identification, Prevention,

and Response." 2014. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 20 Oct. 2016

""REVIEW: 'Audrie & Daisy' reveals deep wounds of social media." UWIRE Text, 16 Sept.

2016, p. 1. General OneFile, libproxy.csun.edu/login?

url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?

p=ITOF&sw=w&u=csunorthridge&v=2.1&id=GALE

%7CA463692798&it=r&asid=454e27f73d97d074799b4bdcdb39a292. Accessed 26 Apr.

2017

Ronson, Jon. So You've Been Publicly Shamed. Riverhead Books, 2015