Effects of Social Media

The Misery of Social Media

 

Since the first social networking site emerged in 1994, cyberbullying has been a growing problem across the United States, and, despite campaigns to lessen its effects, it is worse today than ever before. At Upper Arlington High School, technology is everywhere, and students tend to stay connected to their social media constantly (Arandilla). Unfortunately, students often take advantage of their abilities to hurt fellow classmates, and the advent of social media has brought bullying to an entirely new level. Instead of people making mean comments in person (in which only a few people take part), social media has allowed for hundreds of people to simultaneously contribute to the bullying, and the bullying is often more severe.

 

One such victim is Sophie Finissi, a sophomore at UAHS who has struggled with cyberbullying and social media for the past two years. While social media can be a harmless and entertaining activity for most high school students, it has caused misery for Sophie. During her time at UAHS, Sophie has been harassed and threatened with tweets and comments about her new Range Rover and body image, and those threats ultimately manifested themselves in vandalism to her car.

In the spring of Sophie’s freshman year, her parents bought her a used white 2009 Range Rover. She was ecstatic, like many teenagers are when they receive their first car. With excitement, she posted a picture of her and the car on Instagram. But when Sophie began reading the responses, her excitement turned to misery. Reflecting on the situation, she said, “I felt like I had done something wrong and everyone was turning on me all at once for the world to see.” The social media harassment continued for days.

 

The brutality of the comments were by far the most hurtful for Sophie. One student tweeted, “I will s*** on your car.” While others tweeted, “Lol at freshman getting range rovers.” Another student tweeted about how Sophie is, “Spoiled and she will just call her daddy and he will buy her another range rover.” There was another hurtful tweet that said, “Have fun drunk driving your car you slut.” Another tweet said, “that won’t be the only thing she will be riding.” Sophie eventually decided to stand up for herself, and tweeted that “she wishes everyone would just stop because it’s just a car." About the same time, she started being victimized on a fake twitter account at the high school, UA confessions, where people could anonymously take part in harassing Sophie. The account contained many inappropriate tweets about teachers and the school and was quickly shut down. Although Sophie begged for the tweets to stop, the online onslaught continued.  

 

Shame prevents the vast majority of people from reporting cyber bullying to any adult or seeking any help. Sophie was just one of the only 20% of cyber bullying victims that sought help. (SUMMARY OF OUR CYBERBULLYING RESEARCH FROM 2004-2010). Sophie wanted to do something to make the harassment stop, because the tweets were taking a toll on her emotionally. After a whole day of being harassed with tweets, she decided to tell her mom. Although she did not want to be a tattletale and cause more people to say hurtful things about her, she didn’t know how else to make it all stop. When her mom picked her up from school, Sophie was in tears as she told her mom what had been occurring. She was frightened to go to school the next day because of the shame. When Sophie’s mom saw the tweets, she was outraged. She asked Sophie if she wanted to go talk to the school about it. After a few days of working through the problem with her mother, Sophie decided not to go to the school with the complaints because it would only draw more negative attention to her. Her mom respected her decision and taught Sophie to ignore all the bad things people were saying.

 

The only distraction came from her friends. Sophie’s friends were there for her with support, and they stood up for her when people were negatively talking about Sophie.  They helped her make it through the misery. Sophie said, “Without having my friends, I would have been even more upset and would not come to school until it passed over.” Sophie had friends by her side through it all, and they supported her with positive tweets and pictures about her to combat the bullying. Although Sophie had the support of her friends, many students in America have to deal with the emotional toll of cyberbullying on their own.

 

Although the tweets have stopped, the negative response to Sophie and her car have not gone away.  In fact, there was an incident with her car again this year. People continue to tweet and joke about keying or vandalizing her car. And, while she never thought anyone actually meant it, this year someone keyed her car while it was parked in front of a friend’s house.  

cyberbullying is real, and the overwhelming majority of people who don’t participate in it must stand by the victimized and help them move on.  For Sophie and the other 12 million American teenagers who have been cyberbullied, the most important thing to remember is to look forward and hold their heads high (Hinduja).  In the words of Michael J. Fox, “One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized, and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered” (Cyberbullying Quotes).

 

 

Work Cited

 

Arandilla, Rachel. "A History You Will Love: How Online Social Networking

    Began." 1st Web Designer. 1st Web Designer, 2012. Web. 19 May 2014.

    <http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/history-social-networking/>.

Hinduja, Samir, and Justin W. Patchin. "SUMMARY OF OUR CYBERBULLYING RESEARCH

    FROM 2004-2010." Cyberbullying.us. Cyberbullying Research Center, 2008.

    Web. 19 May 2014. <http://www.cyberbullying.us/research.php>.

"Cyberbullying Quotes." NoBullying.com. No Bullying, 2014. Web. 19 May 2014.

    <http://nobullying.com/cyber-bullying-quotes/>.