There are a lot of news exposing that the suicide rate in our country is getting higher and according to the data given, one of the reasons why teenagers commits suicide is cyberbullying.
I was once asked what the adolescence are experiencing right now. The first thing that came up in my mind was: being unable to go to school with complete sleep, academics, peer pressure and etc. I thought that the only problem was the toxicity that the school work could give us. The inability to have social life because the students were too isolated with the school works. But come to think of it, it’s more than just that.
On September 22, 2010, Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old freshman at Rutgers University in New Jersey, leaped to his death off of the George Washington Bridge in New York after his roommate secretly videotaped a romantic encounter between Clementi and another man and posted it on the web. (Littler, 2011)
January 14, 2010, after yet another day of harassment at school and finally being pelted with a can tossed at her from a car as a group of students drove by, 15-year-old Phoebe Prince hanged herself in the stairwell of the family's apartment in South Hadley, Massachusetts. After her death, a Facebook tribute page in her memory had many crude comments posted by the bullies. (Vijay D, 2010)
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Thirteen-year-old Megan Meier committed suicide in October of 2006 after a 16-year-old online friend, "Josh Evans" sent disparaging messages, humiliated her, and finally broke off the friendship commenting that "…the world would be a better place without you." Despondent, Megan hanged herself 20 minutes later in her bedroom. "Josh Evans" was later discovered to be a fictional account set up by the mother of Megan's former friend who created the ruse to get information about Megan and embarrass her in retribution for Megan allegedly spreading gossip about her daughter. (Littler, 2011)
Ryan Patrick Halligan, of Essex Junction, Vermont, committed suicide when he was 13 after repeated bullying from his classmates at school and cyberbullying. Because Ryan was small in stature and had a learning disability, he may have felt more secure in an online environment until other schoolchildren figured out who he was online and began tormenting him through instant messenger. (Littler, 2011)
As you can see in the given stories above, we could say that cyberbullying can form in many ways. It can be teasing someone verbally, it can also be humiliating someone by spreading a video or picture that shouldn’t be shared with everyone. This could be a reminder that we should be sensitive of our actions through social media because we never know how we can affect the person inside it. We might not do it consciously but it will mark on the person’s heart and mind. Never be a victim and a suspect. Prevent cyberbullying.
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