Drama: A Real Life Tragedy

The theme of this week's readings had to do with cyber bullying. One article we read talked about how a case of cyber bullying led to the suicide of a 13 year old girl. Megan Meier got a message from an alleged 16 year old boy who seemed to show interest in her. They exchanged messages and she formed feelings for him. One day out of the blue she started receiving messages from her saying he didn't want to be friends anymore and she was better off dead. She took that advice and hung herself a day later. According to reports, it turns out that "The mother of a former friend of Megan's allegedly created a fictitious profile in order to gain Megan's trust and learn what Megan was saying about her daughter. But the communication eventually turned hostile." Because a mother was too involved in her own child's life, she caused the death of another mother's child; all because of her cyber bullying. And as Ron Meier said, "That's the biggest tragedy of this whole thing: An adult did it." It couldn't be more true. Kids don't always know what they're getting into. Kids don't always realize they are involved in cyber bullying, but the fact that it was a mother that caused this is horrendous.

                Girls and Their Drama

I once made a video about girls and their drama. To sum up this video, I used to sit with some friends during lunch and all they talked about was the drama in their lives. Always about another girl and how much they disliked these other people. Some days I would listen and think to myself, "Wow, you know, some of the things these girls are saying is kind of serious. I hope they realize that." Now although my video does not cover cyber bullying very much, it transitions into the idea that cyber bullying does not always have to come from a complete stranger on the Internet. In fact, more often than not, cyber bullying occurs between peers. Sometimes it is harder for people to bully in person, so they hide behind a screen to do their dirty work. Or bullies carry on their playtime on the Internet so that the "drama" doesn't just exist in school. And although, none of the drama I have overheard resulted in suicide, there has been fights before and without giving details, the drama has continued over to social websites like Facebook so that the bullying in person became cyber bullying.

The article continues to explain this. It reads "In the information age, playground poundings have moved to online chat rooms and instant messages. Nearly half of all teenagers report they have been the victim of cyber attacks. Everything from text messaging to e-mail can be used to bully victims. Some people even create Web sites solely dedicated to harassment." Sadly, one negative effect of the internet is that bullying can now move from in person to a computer at home. There is no escape from bullying now. If it's not happening at school or a public place, it's happening over a social network or through text messages. The problem is, the targets are getting younger and younger and so they are not at an emotionally stable level to handle the cyber attacks. Nancy Willard says, "When emotionally vulnerable young people get online, they can be very easily manipulated." This is why all the negative remarks calling Megan Meier fat and ugly led to her suicide. She was vulnerable and caught off guard and didn't know why all these things were being said about her. She couldn't handle the cyber bullying and so she ended her life. People think just because they say something behind a computer screen mean nothing could ever happen but the reality is that what happens on the Internet can lead to actions in real life and they can result in suicide, a true tragedy.