Suicide. It’s a very touchy subject isn’t it? But it happens; it’s a fact of life. Did you know that every 90 minutes a teenager takes their own life? There are over 5,000 teenage deaths a year. Half of these deaths are not due to family problems, nor depression, not even abuse, but bullying!
People often bully for a number of reasons, but some of the prominent ones are because of the other people around them. Peer pressure, imitation, and compensation are the three main causes of bullying; however, bullying is all for the same three goals: respect, power, and acceptance. These are things everyone wants. Having respect, power and acceptance makes life easier for people, and people want an easy life.
Often peer pressure will cause bullying. For example some people will encourage others to bully other people, the reason why people go along with peer pressure is that they want to be accepted. No one likes an outcast. Because of their desire to be part of the group and the need to assume a position of importance. Even if they know what they are doing is wrong, social acceptance creates enough temptation to wipe out a person’s conscience. However, people exposed to a bullying behaviour at a young age, perhaps from watching their parents, usually show this same behaviour at an older age because any living being projects the environment it grew up in. nonetheless, it all still comes down to wanting to be accepted.
People are often influenced by those who seen to be ‘’ cool’’ or ‘’ popular’’. If those ‘’ cool’’ or ‘’ popular’’ people act in a certain way, then the person watching may imitate the actions, like bullying a person because popular people do so. This is known as social imitation. This is one of the most common reasons for bullying, and most other reasons stem from this one. Another example is not just peer pressure from popular people, but from friends. People will often imitate their friends who bully others, even when