Cyberbullying

During the time span of the last couple of weeks, we covered a huge topic in Introduction to Publication, that is Cyberbullying.

With this topic came terms and definitions: Target, Offender, By-stander, Up-stander, escalate, and de-escalate.

• Target- A target to put it simply, is the victim, or the person being bullied.

•  Offender- The bully; a person with malicious intent, that wants to cause harm. (Note, that they are evil, evil little trolls....)

• By-stander- Is self- explanatory, it's a witness who does nothing.

They stand by and watch the victim and the bully.

• Up-stander- A witness who actually does do something.

They stand UP for the victim.

• Escalate- Not as in the 'moving stairs' in department stores (that is an escalator), but it means to increase, or intensify.

So, to escalate means to go up.

• De-escalate- means to go down, or decrease. 

With these terms we came up with ways a target, and up-stander can de-escalate the bullying.

For Targets-

• Ignore them (Don't retaliate)
•  Report or Block them
• Tell an adult (Make sure that you trust them, and they are not biased towards you or the offender)
• Save the evidence. Screen shots, save text messages, record phone calls.
• Confront the bully face-to-face
• They made Privacy settings for a reason! Once they are blocked, if your settings are on private, it's bye-bye to the bully.

For Up-Standers-

• Council and support the victim, they will feel alone. Especially if they're more than one person bullying them.
• Tell a trusted adult (Odds are that the victim, will be afraid to tell someone themselves.)
• Confront the bully. (Don't be offensive, that could make things worse for the victim.)

With the terms above, and the ways to de-escalate the violence. We as a class, all used WeVideo as our web2.0 tool.

The video above is mine, it tells my story of how my time being Cyberbulling was.
What happened, and how bad it got.

After my video, there are the tips on how to de-escalate the violence, and why to become an up-stander, if my video hadn't already encouraged you enough.

Now, about the web2.0 tool.

WeVideo, is a collaborative online video  creator.
It is free, but if you do not purchase it, you can only make up to fifteen minutes of video each month.
It is quite a complicated contraption if you ask me.

With tons of buttons, and specific ways to do things. I can honestly say, that this is not exactly the best thing for an novice to use.

Besides how complex the website is, it is a well designed tool and I would recommend to anyone who has experience with creating videos.

Our Digital literacy component was not a website this time, the main aspect is Cyberbullying.

With it we spoke of the dangers of it, within the last few months multiple teenagers have committed suicide because of some from of bullying. Over half of the suicides were reported to have been caused by Cyberbullying.

As each suicide happens, states have supposedly been creating laws against this new form of bullying. Creating laws, and if no action is taken, fines.

By going over this section, I have found that this is quite the serious topic. I myself have been a victim of cyberbullying in the past, but  I never could have dreamed that so many other have been bullied each and everyday!

Man and woman holding anti-bullying sign, http://www.flickr.com/photos/64018555@N03/6937833596, taken April 12, 2012

Now knowing this, I will become an up-stander! I will have no tolerance what so ever for bullying!
I will scan online, to my friends who seem to have a sudden change in attitude, and stand up for them!

I will not allow another suicide to occur if I have any say in it!

With this being known, I have been hyped- up and ecstatic to help out those who haven been through what I have! I'M READY TO HELP THE VICTIMS, AND PUT A STOP TO CYBERBULLYING!!!!!