Most of my blog posts have been about the professional aspect of social media. I would like to tell my readers about a personal story from my childhood. I of course do not remember all of the glory details but just enough to remember the weirdness of it.
I believe I was in John Bassett Moore intermediate school which is like a pre middle school where I grew up. My teachers would take the students in a group every few hours to go to the bathroom I guess to save class time. I was using the restroom when a girl in the popular crowd jumped onto the top of my stall door. To my surprise she opened the door by doing this when I was a kid, so I was incredibly embarrassed and uncomfortable. She began making fun of me any way she could about my body.
Photo by wix.com
If that was not bad enough, I logged on to Facebook shortly after this event to see them making fun of my body online. The girl and her friends were posting all over the website about my body. So, if it was not bad enough that she saw my body and told her friends about it she also decided to post it online.
I was at my dad’s house that weekend when I saw it plastered online. I began to cry and panic. I called my mom, and she printed the page off, I can’t remember if my parents went into the school or not to report it to the principal. When you’re a kid those things feel like the end of the world. As an adult I would handle it much differently. For one, why was this girl jumping on top of stall doors while they were in use? That to me is weird. I also wouldn’t be ashamed of my body. I don’t love everything about myself, but I know who I am as a person now. Nowadays most people do not get a reaction out of me with things in that nature. I just ignore remarks from other people because I know who I am at the end of the day. If they feel the need to tear down others, they are the one’s suffering. A child might be going through something that tears down others but doing so as an adult is extremely sad. Adults have a hectic schedule and if the bully pencils in verbally assaulting others into their schedule it is even more sad coming from an adult.
The point of me sharing my story with my audience is to show that social media again has pros and cons. It can be used professionally, personally, or in this case to cyberbully a child. I hope my viewers realize how stupid cyberbullying is no matter what age they are. Words can hurt, and once something is posted even if it is deleted someone can still find it.
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