Extra Credit: Bullying

Bullying has always been a problem amongst young people. It used to be a face to face confrontation typically in lunch rooms, playgrounds, and hallways. This could be for any number of reasons, being too fat/skinny/ tall short, having special needs etc. but times have changed since the explosion of the internet influence, and social networking websites. You no longer have to be in physical contact with a person in order to be pushed around by them. The most recent case of abuse through social networking websites is the case of Tyler Clementi. Tyler was a first year student at Rutgers and a gifted violin player. Tyler made an agreement with his roommate Dharun Ravi to have private use of their room for a certain amount of time. Ravi violated this contract by secretly setting up a video camera and taping Clementi’s private sexual encounter with another male. Ravi and his friend proceeded to “out” Clementi by posting this recording through twitter. This violation of trust and privacy drove Clementi to the point of suicide. This story has many similar ones to it.

            A few years ago there was a girl named Megan Meyers. Megan was having problems with another girl at school. The bully would bother Megan often in person. But one day the conflict escaladed. The bully enlisted the help of her mother to make a fake MySpace profile. They created a false account of a boy named Josh. One day megan found and befriended josh. She felt so secure and connected to him that she proceeded to tell Josh her tales of her school bullying. When Megan found out that “josh” was her bully in disguise, she took her own life. The most twisted part of this story is when the bully’s mother went to Megan’s wake and comforted the Meyers parents. When Mrs. Meyers found out who was responsible for her daughters death, she was outraged but powerless.

            Since there was no way to sentence the mother and daughter, the case went on for years. However, just because no one went to prison, does not mean that nothing came from this tragedy. Mrs. Meyers tours schools talking to kids about the dangers of bullying and technology. A point brought up in the Social Network movie, is how things on the internet are permanent. “The internet is written in ink, not pencil.” MTV has a public service announcement with this message; it demonstrates this idea of how internet harassing can be just a damaging as physical abuse.