Social Media and Bullying

I was searching around on CNN.com for something to right about for our last blog. I came across a title that read ‘Social Media Brings Bullying to Light’. I thought well that is fitting being that is what we have been talking about. I clicked on the link and was sick to my stomach about what I saw. I am some what of a wuss when it comes to seeing anything violent or sad AT ALL. It doesn’t matter to what degree or to whom I just can barely stand to keep my eyes on the computer screen long enough to watch what happens. Anyways, back to the video. It is a video taken with group of teens that were walking home from school one autumn day in September in Newark, Ohio. The girl in the pink hoodie with blue and blonde hair is Alexis Xanders. She was walking with her boyfriend, which they both consider themselves Emo, when they were approached by 6 to 10 other classmates. In the video you can see Alexis and her boyfriend trying to just walk away and ignore the other kids but they are continuing to harass and tug at her backpack all because Alexis made the comment that she didn’t like their favorite band Insane Clown Posse. In the background you can hear other kids saying “hit her” and “punch her”. I was cringing waiting for the moment when you saw the punch. It ended up not being as drastic as I thought but you can still clearly see Alexis get hit.

I can’t believe that such behavior actually exists. In my high school I didn’t see much bullying going on but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t I guess? The other thing that blows my mind is the fact that the bullying crowd video tapped such an action and thought that it was cool enough to post to MySpace. What on earth makes punching someone else in the face because they don’t like the same band as you cool?

The video tape ended up working in Alexis’s favor because the girl that actually recorded it sent to to her on MySpace. Alexis, wanting something to be done about it posted the video to YouTube and then to CNN’s iReport. A local news reporter says the video and alerted the local police. The 15-year-old suspect, whose name cannot be released because she is a minor was charged as a juvenile with individual counts of assault, menacing and unlawful restraint. The Licking County Prosecutor Ken Oswalt said he also confirmed they are looking into charging other people from the video for inciting the fight.

With out this video being posted to YouTube, MySpace, and CNN iReport Alexis would probably have never had the chance to confront the people that hit and bullied her that day. She is a minority of teens that are bullied and actually report what is being done to them. A lot of them don’t have the evidence as Alexis did and she only had that video because the bully’s thought that it was cool and wanted to post to show all their friends. Social Media is now being used for more reasons and purposes than a lot of us first think.

Teens who are 'Sexting'

With this week talking about cell phones I saw an article about an ‘epidemic’ that is happening among teenagers and their cell phones…SEXTING. What exactly is sexting you may ask? It is sharing sexually explicit videos, photos, and chat by cell phone or online. It is becoming a more common thing for the teen generation and even younger to be doing even though it is starting to come with some harsh penalties.

A 16-year old teen boy named Sammy, from the San Francisco Bay Area said he had shared nude pictures of himself with his girlfriends and nude pictures of other people he sent on after getting them from another friend. He said he didn’t realize that other young people from Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania had faced felony charges for doing the same thing.
Research shows that teen’s brains aren’t quite mature enough to make good decisions consistently. They don’t think that this could be potentially harmful for them to participate in and possibly even affect their future. It could get into the wrong hands like potential employees or college admissions office. We have talked about this previously in class that once something is put out on the internet it NEVER goes away or that no matter what you have your Facebook privacy setting on someone will be able to see it and it could harm you down the road.

However, sexting doesn't stop with teenagers. Young adults are even more likely to have sexted; one-third of them said they had been involved in sexting, compared with about one-quarter of teenagers.

In an article from CBSnews.com I read first hand just how serious the law is taking on the subject of ‘sexting’. At the beginning of this year three teenage girls in a western Pennsylvania school had allegedly sent nude or semi-nude cell phone pictures of themselves to three male classmates that are charged with child pornography. The problem here is because the girls are 14 and 15 years old where the boys are 17 years old. When I read that I could not believe what I was reading. When I was that age I was worried about what to wear to school and boys still had cooties. Times are changing and it has only been 8 years since I was that age. What the heck is to come for us in the next 8 years? Another example is an eighth grader from Texas spent the night in a juvenile detention center after his football coach found a picture of a nude female on his cell phone.

I think parents these days need to carefully monitor what their teens are doing. Especially since kids these days are getting cell phones at such an early age. My younger sister is 13 years old and a seventh grader and she still doesn’t have a cell phone. Thank God! I was a senior in high school when I got a cell phone and I survived. Your teen might kick, scream, and yell at you and say you are invading their privacy but like I stated above and research shows that teens don’t always use the best of their judgment.