A Danger of New Media
Growing up, I learned that nothing
or no one is perfect. Intentions may be good, but there always seem to be a
reward vs. risk no matter what someone is doing. That’s just the way life goes.
There is no difference when it comes to new media and online activity. A danger
in new media that is affecting the world is cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is the use of
electronic communication to bully a person by sending messages of harassment,
threatening, or intimidating nature. Cyberbullying is very dangerous because
there is no telling how the person being bullied will handle or take what is
being said to them or about them. There have been several different instances
where cyberbullying has lead to various individuals committing suicide.
In 2010, Tyler Clementi was a
freshman at the University of Rutgers. His stay at Rutgers was very short lived
though as well as his life because he committed suicide on September 22, 2010.
Tyler was a victim of cyberbullying. The report on puresight.com says, “Tyler Clementi, a shy 18-year-old Rutgers
University (New Jersey) freshman with a passion for playing the violin, jumped
to his death from the George Washington Bridge on September 22, 2010.
His last words, posted onto his Facebook profile about 10 minutes before he
died, were: "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry." Also freshmen at
Rutgers were Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, who were the causes behind Tyler’s
decision to commit suicide. Dharun and Molly had recorded Tyler sexual
encounter with another man in his room and streamed the video online without
Tyler knowing. Dharun and Molly were only charged with invasion of privacy.
According to buzzfeed.com, there
have been 9 teenage suicides since last September due to cyberbullying. This
leaves me to wonder what can we do to prevent cyberbullying or at least improve
the chances of it not happening. To be quite honest though, I am not sure if
there is anyway to fix this problem. I believe that there should be a harsher
penalty although. I think that if one is caught cyberbullying another
individual, that person should at least be fined money for it. Imprisonment
might be a little bit too far because they did not actually commit the murder, but
they were the cause of it. Maybe the fine will lower the statistics. Until
something is done, there is no telling what else cyberbullying may lead up to.
Works Cited
"Tyler
Clementi 1992-2010." Parental Control. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov.
2013.
<http://www.puresight.com/Real-Life-Stories/tyler-clementi-1992-2010-puresight.html>.
"9 Teenage
Suicides In The Last Year Were Linked To Cyber-Bullying On Social Network
Ask.fm." BuzzFeed. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/a-ninth-teenager-since-last-september-has-committed-suicide>.
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ReplyDeleteCyberbullying is a widespread way of tormenting others in an online world. It is a growing issue in today’s society. More and more teens are becoming victims of cyberbullying. According to Pew’s recently-released study, “About one third (32 percent) of all teenagers who use the Internet say they have been targets of a range of annoying and potentially menacing online activities” (Popkin). Quite a bit of the victims end up committing suicide and I agree that the tormentors should be punished in a harsher manner. If the one’s committing the “crime” are badly punished then more people will be afraid of the consequences. I disagree with the fact that imprisonment is too harsh. I’m not saying that a year in prison is right either but, a week or even a few days would show them what the real world is like and make them less likely to do it again.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
Popkin, Helen. Cyberbullying really is that bad. 5 July 2007. Article. 24 November 2013.
savage
ReplyDelete