Social Bullying

Social Bullying

About us: For our English assignment, we got together to create this blog which we hope may help make the world a social bullying free place.  We are students from College Notre-Dame, in grade eight that were placed in a team of four.  This group consists of Ainsley McMurray, Audrey Schafer, Pranto Tarafder and Justine Chan.  We hope that our work paid off and demonstrated to people that social bullying may not be noticed, but it’s a very serious problem.

Definition: Social bullying is a type of intimidation which is at present, mostly used among girls in schools.  This type of bullying consists of spreading rumors, talking behind people’s backs’, deliberate exclusion from a social group, or even being laughed at publically.  Often enough, this type of bullying is started for no particular reason, but escalates to become an extremely serious problem.  Social bullying is found most of the time during what has been nicknamed the “tween” period, meaning young teenagers.

Effects: Effects of bullying are immediate and are almost always negative for the victim.  For instance, when someone is being bullied, their grades can drop, or in more severe cases, plummet. This fact is often true because of absences and/or the inability to focus.  Students might be absent more often because they are afraid to ride the bus, go to the bathroom, or even of what’s hiding just around the corner.  Due to the fact that they are afraid, the victim can become obsessed with the fear of bullying and how to avoid it, which causes an inability to focus in class.

Moreover, the bullying in itself is enough to cause violence in the victim so that he/she becomes the perpetrator.  Therefore, when bullying and bad grades, which sometimes means embarrassment from other students or harassment from their parents, are combined, much more serious problems can arise.  The most serious effect that can present itself is that the victim starts thinking of suicide as an option.  These are all effects of bullying, some more severe than others, but all must be dealt with.

Consequences: After having a bullying experience, there could be some long-term consequences. For example, a lot of the victims suffer from anxiety disorders, such as depression, separation anxiety, panic disorder and a lot more. This “psychological stress” affects the victim’s body which leads to low resistance to disease and infection. These disorders may also affect in a negative way the relationship between the victim and his/her family, friends (and co-workers). This experience during childhood could affect the person’s self-worth, even in adulthood, and sometimes the person doesn’t even believe she’s worthy of having friends. Moreover, the victims may use violence towards others to prevent from getting bullied again or to get revenge. Unfortunately, school shootings are most of the time a result of bullying. However those are more extreme cases, most of the victims inflict pain to themselves to forget about the emotional pain. As a last resort, the victim may commit suicide.

Stop social bullying

Advise: Even if rumors spread very quickly and are very hard to stop, there are ways to prevent them. During your “tween” years social acceptance is very important. Sharing personal information with your “best friends” is very common. Unfortunately, trust can easily be broken because, at that age, best friends don’t last for a very long time. As a result of secret sharing, bullies will start rumors that are even more embarrassing when they’re true. In short, don’t tell friends secrets that you don’t want everybody else to know because rumors are started very easily and are very hard to stop.

In addition, rumors could be started about you because of your attitude. For example, in the movie “Easy A” a girl dressed inappropriately so rumors were started about her. During your “tween” years you try to discover who you are, but sometimes you will take a bad path and rumors may be started about you. You must stay true to yourself so people will not have secrets to use against you. In conclusion, if you don’t tell your secrets and are proud of who you are, social bullying shouldn’t affect you.

Solutions: This section of the blog will consist of solutions to help the victims and their parents. If a person feels that they are being rejected or being laughed at continuously, they are victims of social bullying. There are multiple people you can go see for help. Getting help from an adult is better because your friends might have heard the rumors that were spreading about you. Nevertheless, the victims can always get help from true friends. You can also go ask your principal for help because he has power over his students. If they don’t listen, then go tell to an adult that you trust. As for the parents, if see that your child is behaving badly, then you should go talk to him/her and try to help. You can also contact an anti-bullying organization for help. In conclusion, the victims should stay strong and parents should defend the child that is being bullied.