Social networking is how people interact in today's society. There are many different programs an individual can use for social networking such as Instant Messenger, Facebook, and Twitter. What makes these sites a positive is that an individual is able to connect with friends from far away distances. But the problem with these social networking sites is an individual does not always know who they are speaking too. Unfortunately, a tragedy occurred in 2006 that led to a thirteen year old girl committing suicide because of an individual she met on the internet.
In 2006 a thirteen year old girl by the name of Megan Meier commited suicide because of the verbal abuse she was receiving on the web. Megan had low self-esteem and was on mediciation during the time of her death. When Megan was on the internet she began talking to an attracitive sixteen year old boy. Or she believed she was talking to a sixteen year old boy. Unfortnately, she was talking to one of her ex-friends Mom. The Mom would send comments to Megan saying, " Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat" (ABC News). To a girl with low self-esteem this really affected her and these harsh comments lead to herself committing suicide. Originally, the "guy" acted all nice to Megan, but as the individual gained Megan's trust that was when all things took a serious turn for the worst. "When emotionally vulnerable young people get online, they can very easily be manipulated" (ABC News). Young people let their guard down quickly on the internet and trust somebody too easily. Unfortunately, Megan trusted this person too much and it lead to her feeling even worse about herself and ending her life.
In today's society, things being said on the internet are much more damaging to an individual than physical contact. People build these relationships without knowing somebody online and that can lead to serious issues in the future. Ron Meier who is Megan's Father stated, "Be as watchful as you can be" (ABC News). This is referring to parents who have children that go on the internet. There are some evil people out there and when they cyber bully an individual on the internet, they can do serious damage to a person's self-esteem. Sadly, Megan Meier is not the only person who has faced cyber- bullying in her life, this occurs all around the world. Parents need to be careful and aware of the people their kids talk too because the comments that could be said about them on the internet, could effect their child's life and also yours.
Nice post, Max! I would agree with you that cyber bullying is a horrible problem on the internet and we need to be more aware of it so it can be stopped. The first thing that needs to be done is parents making sure their children are safe and engaging in appropriate material on the internet. I liked how you gave some tips to stop cyber bullying and it made for a very effective blog.
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