Bullying

[chef17]

Not that simple - yes you can block people on various stuff but they can also make fake accounts, get friends to do it, etc. I have a younger family member who was being bullied by a small group of boys at school and it was pretty ridiculous the lengths they went to.

Just block everyone :P

Seriously tho, if your profile is closed, only your friends can post on your wall. Is there a way to get around that?

[sunbunny]

Excuse my ignorance, but how do you get bullied through facebook? Isn't that the whole point of the block feature?

Well yeah, you can block them. But that doesn't stop them from posting stuff and everyone else seeing it, though. It gets back to the kid at some point.

We did everything we could and couldn't stop the bullying. We went through over a year of pure hell because of the psycho bitch.

[sunbunny]

Just block everyone :P

Seriously tho, if your profile is closed, only your friends can post on your wall. Is there a way to get around that?

It's not just that it's posted on the kids wall. It's that they're posting it on their own wall and everyone else seeing it. It's still going to get back to the kid at some point.

[chef17]

Well yeah, you can block them. But that doesn't stop them from posting stuff and everyone else seeing it, though. It gets back to the kid at some point.

We did everything we could and couldn't stop the bullying. We went through over a year of pure hell because of the psycho bitch.

Good point, wasn't thinking about that.

[PhillyB]

it's a myth that bullying to the point of suicides didn't happen back in the good ol' days when you could drink water from the hose and ride your bike without helmets. the arrival of the internet has not only added another dimension to bullying - a far more sinister one that is much harder to control - but it has allowed us to become aware of these bully/suicide incidents every single time they happen. frequency hasn't just randomly skyrocketed, but our awareness of it has.

i'm amazed that people can adopt such a lackadaisical attitude about it when it is so clearly a major, major issue.

[bLACKpANTHER]

[Zod]

Bullying is just social stratification. Animals do it, too.

It's ridiculous to either expect it to go away or to try to make it go away.

The more enemies you make, the more people it effectively takes to bring you down. Use it to build strength.

Last I checked, humans were held to a higher standard than wild animals.

[PhillyB]

Because it's not a major issue. And most of the time, the bullying is as much an error in judgment on the part of the bullee.

Why would a bully even have your phone number? You either gave it to a trusted friend who turned out to be untrustworthy (error in judgment), or you handed it out like crackers at a cheese social (error in judgment). And closing your Facebook account isn't a hard thing to do.

It's easy to prevent if you simply unplug from the people who are attacking you. But I guess wallowing in misery is easier than fighting it.

so close down all your social and communicative media because certain people refuse to acknowledge that assholes shouldn't be tolerated by society?

sorry, but not everything can be solved by a good punch to the face. this isn't an episode of leave it to beaver and things don't just fit neatly into a beat-up-the-bully-and-become-a-man paradigm. the issue is far more complex.

[Fire n Ice]

Because it's not a major issue. And most of the time, the bullying is as much an error in judgment on the part of the bullee.

Why would a bully even have your phone number? You either gave it to a trusted friend who turned out to be untrustworthy (error in judgment), or you handed it out like crackers at a cheese social (error in judgment). And closing your Facebook account isn't a hard thing to do.

It's easy to prevent if you simply unplug from the people who are attacking you. But I guess wallowing in misery is easier than fighting it.

Wow...So if I'm reading your post right, if someone makes an error in judgement, they deserve to be bullied or it's ok if they're bullied? Kind of reminds me of people who say that if women dress provocatively they deserve to be raped. If you have to go to school with the bullies, it's not that easy to get away from them. And like Sunbunny said, even closing a FB account wouldn't help if the bullies are still putting things or their or their friend's pages.

Oh, and bullying IS a major issue!

[PhillyB]

also remember bullying has changed from "give me your lunch money or i'll punch you in the face" to "you are worthless and you shouldn't have been born and everyone in the school agrees that you should just go hang yourself."

the former is physically frightening and is often fixable by nutting up and nailing someone. the latter is far, far more sinister because it is so devastating psychologically, far more effective than a punch.

[Zod]

also remember bullying has changed from "give me your lunch money or i'll punch you in the face" to "you are worthless and you shouldn't have been born and everyone in the school agrees that you should just go hang yourself."

the former is physically frightening and is often fixable by nutting up and nailing someone. the latter is far, far more sinister because it is so devastating psychologically, far more effective than a punch.

Good point. Bullying like everything else is more extreme and widely communicated now. Its no longer a small deal.

[Epistaxis]

It is unrealistic to expect what I experienced in Junior High (what a nightmare period in anyone's life-mostly internally generated) and to a more limited degree in High school to go away completely.

By that I mean degrading comments between both friends and classmates.

Sadly, we seem in our darkest moments and in our most socially precarious situations to frequently fall back on tearing others down in an ineffective attempt to make ourselves feel better.

I don't think THAT will ever go away.

I do hope that extreme violence in these situations, both outward and inwardly directed, can be avoided thru education and some enlightenment, both at home and in the schools.

Sadly, the schools seem hard pressed to offer PE and art let alone warm fuzzies, and home lives seem to be getting more and more detached.

Dunno, but as is usually the case, it starts at home.

[MadHatter]

Because it's not a major issue. And most of the time, the bullying is as much an error in judgment on the part of the bullee.

Why would a bully even have your phone number? You either gave it to a trusted friend who turned out to be untrustworthy (error in judgment), or you handed it out like crackers at a cheese social (error in judgment). And closing your Facebook account isn't a hard thing to do.

It's easy to prevent if you simply unplug from the people who are attacking you. But I guess wallowing in misery is easier than fighting it.

Wow....another "blame the victim" defense.

You cannot "unplug" from those bullying you.

[MadHatter]

Dunno, but as is usually the case, it starts at home.

Yep....find a bully and you will usually find an asshole for their parent.