Bullying and Social Networking Sites

An extract from this essay...

The lack of understanding towards the concequences of bullying. Suicide. It's a touchy subject isn't it? But it happens; it's a fact of life. Did you know that every 90 minutes, somewhere in the world, a teenager takes their own life? There are over 5000 teenage suicides every year. Half of those, that's around 2,500 lives, are taken not due to family issues, not due to depression or abuse, not due to pressure at school, but due to bullying. There are various types of it, but most have three things in common; it is deliberately hurtful behaviour, it is typically repeated over time and often there is an imbalance of power, which makes it hard for those being bullied to defend themselves. There is a certain type of bullying which is becoming more of a social problem; cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is the act of causing harm to others using digital media like email, mobile phones, social networking sites, and the general internet. This is one of the most common forms of Internet abuse because of its supposed anonymity and instant power. Users say and do things they would never do in public or real life. Did you know that over 58% of adolescents and teenagers have been bullied? And around the same number have been engaged in cyber bullying? Did you know that more than 1 in 3 young people have been threatened online? Whether it is an empty threat or a violent threat, it's still a threat. Cyber bullying leads to people having low self esteem and a damaged view of the way they see themselves. Those people who are subject to such cyber bullying are up to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than those who haven't experienced it. Do you have any idea of what it feels like to be bullied? Well let me tell you. Being bullied is almost like being dehumanised. It's like feeling you've got nobody, it's like feeling you're alone, isolated, without anybody to turn to. It makes you feel small, like you're worthless, like nobody in the world cares. The harsh words become familiar voices. Those words make you look at yourself differently, they make you hate who you are, and what you stand for, what you look like and what you're interested in. It's almost like having your identity completely stripped from you. Bullies