Here is a newspaper article that I submitted to my school. I' like to share it with all of you to let you all know there is help out there. I am a seventeen-year-old girl in high school and I am a victim of cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying is the act of abusing another through the use of web-related sources or communication. These sources include social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc. No matter where you go there will always be bullies who will take advantage of these websites. It is said to be one of the major issues facing the world today.

In a poll done by Ipsos, it has been said that twelve percent of the worldwide teen population have experienced cyber-bullying in their lives. Nearly one in ten children have experienced it around the world. Statistics today state that bullying victims are two to nine times more likely to commit suicide or attempt it than those who don’t experience bullying. Twenty-five percent of kids don’t tell anyone about being bullied. Kids who are overweight or obese are sixty-three percent more likely to be bulling. In the end, thirty-nine percent of all social network users experience cyber-bullying at least once in their lifetime.

It’s been a little over a year since I was first in this situation and I personally know how most of these teens feel. You never assume the worst of things unless this has happened to you. I started assuming it was my fault or I put myself in that situation and I had no way out. Now I know that isn’t true. There is always a way out and suicide is never the answer.

After sophomore year started last August, I began to blog about world related issues we see today. I never try to comment negatively on them. I try to touch positively so I can help others who are affected by them. I hope that as you read this you will be able to see a way out if you are ever in a situation like this one.

My Cyber-bully Review blogged March 2, 2012

Today in time cyber-bullying has become a problem in society. It tears down elementary students, teens and sometimes-even adults. The effects are very crucial for everyone. I know that when it happens to us we don’t know what to do, who to talk to, or where we can go. Talk to a friend, a parent, and/or someone you trust. If it’s a text, email, whatever, save the evidence and don’t reply back to whoever sent it. Report and block the person, get off the website or change your profile (meaning get a new one) and don’t let them keep getting to you.

I’m not just saying this because it’s going on around the world, but because I have been through it myself. But hiding behind it isn’t what makes you who you are striving to be, for me its letting go (as in not letting it get to me, even when I wanted it to) and working around it. People don’t see your potential and they won’t until you have reached to higher places. Strive to be the better person you know you are and who you can become. Take the chance to live freely, not hide. Move around, change lives, become great, even successful and just live! Motivate change! Do things that lift you up, not tear you down. Do what you love, not what makes you unhappy.

Right after my first experience, I wasn’t a happy high schooler. I may have looked like one on the outside, but on the inside I was miserable. I always doubted the good things I did, I slumped over when I walked, and I hid behind my clothes. I layered myself in misery instead of self-confidence. But for me suicide was never the answer to get rid of it. 

Cyber-bullying From My Experience blogged July 20, 2012

I have been there, on the other side of the screen, humiliated by another, and hurt from the inside out. As a victim of cyber-bullying I have learned that no matter what bullies say, it’s up to you on how well you deal with the situation.

After the first time, I realized it wasn’t my fault it happened. It was their choice, their doing.  I had thought to myself, maybe I had done something that got me into this or I just wasn’t someone’s favorite person. None of that was ever true.

After the second time around, it just wasn’t worth it to care. I may have struggled with my self-esteem and walked with my head down in the school hallways, and though that was who I was for a short period of time, I still had a chance to change who I was. In the end I gave myself a motto.

            “You may say hurtful, deceiving words that may make my heart ache and tears fall from my eyes, but I am strong. I will make it through my life and make something big out of myself.”

            I know that there is someone to comfort us in our times of need. No matter how big or small the situation is. I have learned so much about myself after all I have been through. And I have been able to choose who I want to become in my life. This has helped me to know who I am and hold my head up high when I walk. I know that this was something that I was meant to go through to learn to treat myself with respect and help gain respect from others.

           

            Best thing to tell yourself is it isn’t your fault. Don’t think the worst, it does not help anything. Think positively and stay true to yourself. It’s better that way.

Cyber-bullies: Affecting others and changing lives for the worst blogged August 4, 2012

Cyber-bullies pick on others who are confident in who they are, what they believe in or even just how great their life is going. They think that since life isn’t going well for them that it’s easier to pick on others. By tearing down another individual they can raise their own self-esteem and ruin the self-esteem of another.

            Just like Taylor in the movie Cyber-Bully, it can happen to anyone. If you haven’t seen it, I encourage you to watch it. It has helped me and I hope many others out there who have been in this same situation.

            If you have been cyber-bullied, stand up for who you are. You are someone! You should be treated with respect just like everyone else in this world. It doesn’t matter what you look like or whether you dress like everyone else, you deserve to be treated right. No matter what people think of you, you are human and you’re just like everyone else.

            In the end, no matter what you do in life there will always be someone out there who is struggling in this area. Be courteous in standing up for them. Make the decision to change the problem society and the world have set this out to be. Can you be the one to change the life of another for good? If so motivate change to a higher extent.