Bullying - a Social Epidemic
Bullying – A Social Epidemic
Katherine A. Witt
Strayer University
Abstract
Society has become more aware of the harmful results of what once was thought of as just a period of growing up, to a social epidemic of sorts. What used to be considered just a part of adolescence has now escalated into what some experts have agreed is an epidemic within our society. Who should be held responsible and what can be done to stop this continuous practice of bullying. Bullying and teen suicide have officially been linked, and now it is more important than ever that we find a solution to this problem.
Bullying – A Social Epidemic Statistics have shown that what was once was considered and accepted in society as a form of growing up or adolescent pranks, has a direct correlation to the suicide of young people who are victims of these childish pranks. Bullying is now being viewed as a social epidemic and is no longer considered just words in a nursery rhyme. Bullying has always been a problem since the beginning of time but there are now more ways to bully than ever before. Technology has unleashed a whole new way of bullying called cyber-bullying and the media tends to sensationalize these events in order to receive higher public ratings. In the writer’s opinion, this type of bullying is far more insidious than your every day run of the mill case of face-to-face bullying. In order for society to take up the cause against bullying, bullying must clearly be defined. However, if you over-generalize the definition to include name-calling, you could probably say that every child is being bullied every day. In an article entitled Overcoming Bullying Behavior, bullying is described as “one or more individuals inflicting physical, verbal, or emotional abuse on another-includes threat of bodily harm, weapon possession, extortion, civil rights violation, assault and battery, gang activity, attempted murder, and murder” (Clore, p.5). This description of
Katherine A. Witt
Strayer University
Abstract
Society has become more aware of the harmful results of what once was thought of as just a period of growing up, to a social epidemic of sorts. What used to be considered just a part of adolescence has now escalated into what some experts have agreed is an epidemic within our society. Who should be held responsible and what can be done to stop this continuous practice of bullying. Bullying and teen suicide have officially been linked, and now it is more important than ever that we find a solution to this problem.
Bullying – A Social Epidemic Statistics have shown that what was once was considered and accepted in society as a form of growing up or adolescent pranks, has a direct correlation to the suicide of young people who are victims of these childish pranks. Bullying is now being viewed as a social epidemic and is no longer considered just words in a nursery rhyme. Bullying has always been a problem since the beginning of time but there are now more ways to bully than ever before. Technology has unleashed a whole new way of bullying called cyber-bullying and the media tends to sensationalize these events in order to receive higher public ratings. In the writer’s opinion, this type of bullying is far more insidious than your every day run of the mill case of face-to-face bullying. In order for society to take up the cause against bullying, bullying must clearly be defined. However, if you over-generalize the definition to include name-calling, you could probably say that every child is being bullied every day. In an article entitled Overcoming Bullying Behavior, bullying is described as “one or more individuals inflicting physical, verbal, or emotional abuse on another-includes threat of bodily harm, weapon possession, extortion, civil rights violation, assault and battery, gang activity, attempted murder, and murder” (Clore, p.5). This description of