I’m writing this blog post today because I’ve seen it happen too many times in our modern technological society.
Once upon a time, if you didn’t like someone, you wrote their name on the bathroom wall in school – so-and-so is a slut, so-and-so is gay, filthy concepts in a filthy stall.
Then came the internet. Facebook. Myspace. Friendster. YouTube. Twitter. And the bullying went high-tech. Kids were harassed with anonymous Facebook accounts. Private moments were surreptitiously videotaped and then blasted onto YouTube. Tyler Clementi was one such victim. Megan Meier was another. They weren’t the first. And sadly, they won’t be the last.
Unless we do something now.
Now they didn’t have cyberbullying in the 1970’s, when I was a teenager; but I shudder to think what could have happened in my life had these social networking sites existed. As a person who grew up and suffered abuse from bullying classmates, I can only imagine what that abuse might have looked like if they had access to Facebook and Twitter in the 1970’s. Social networking sites can allow you to be anonymous, and if you believe that nobody can connect what you say to who you are, you’re going to release whatever vitriol or venom you can produce, your victims be damned.
And for the victims, it’s more painful than you can imagine. An image that doesn’t represent their true heart or their true soul is now plastered all over the Internet like Banksy graffiti. Family members can see it. Strangers can see it. Whatever “it” is, whether it’s a private moment or a mistake or something that never ever happened. And you can’t do anything about it. It’s enforced shame. And you feel like you have no one to turn to – how do you know the person you’re confiding in hasn’t seen that horrible photo or vicious video?
There is an upcoming conference at the College of Saint Rose on March 15th. The conference, entitled “Cyberbullying: What Every Parent Needs to Know,” features a panel of experts that includes Bethlehem Central Middle School principal Sandra Morley; WTEN news anchor and TU blogger Lydia Kulbida; and magazine editor and TU blogger Lori Cullen. The event, which begins at 7:00 p.m., is free; click on this hyperlink for more information about the event.
I’m not trying to be an alarmist. But I don’t want to hear about any more kids killing themselves because a bunch of lowlife punks created a Facebook page designed to cause hurt and shame and grief.
Please. No more.
Chuck The Writer 
If I had my choice, no one would even bother with social networks. Unless you have a purpose (to do good things), most are total nonsense.
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I definitely plan on attending the conference. And by “attending”, I mean hanging out in the parking lot and taking people’s lunch money. Maybe the occasional wedgie.
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Good comment Hal, you should be easy to pick out. Low self esteem, overweight, maybe balding,and husband to abused spouse. We’ll get some of your victims together and let them have a little discussion with you. No wonder these events need to be put on.
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“Filthy concepts in a filthy stall.” Chuck, you could write song lyrics. You conveyed a lot of feeling in just six words.
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Thanks, Chuck for writing this up. The issue is real and the damage can be lethal.
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