A victim? I choose not to be.
Cyber bullying? After my own experience with aggressive narcissist people on #SM I was intrigued to find out whether it was just me who felt this or were there others out there who were also targets of bullying and judged as inferior by a few people doing the circuits? When I searched for the term ‘Cyber Bullying’ I found that cyber bullying statistics showed that internet bullying was a serious problem with the harassing others in schools, prevalent among teenagers involving their use of technology.
http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html
Most research talked about cyber bullying being a thing among teenagers and young adults. But as I researched further, I found adult bullying statistics too. You would think that adults, especially educators, would know better, be good role models/citizens and lead by example- but that is not the case. I thought of Twitter as just another time wasting #SM platform, until I embarked on a journey of connecting with educators globally and learning from them. Seven months on and I was almost ready to deactivate my twitter account. This is when I reflected on my experiences and asked myself some hard questions– why should the narcissist few do this to others and get away with it? Why should I be judged for not knowing everything and wanting to learn? Why do these select few get away with this kind of behavior and most importantly why do some not see it and encourage unacceptable, rude behaviour?
So what is adult cyber bullying?
Adult cyber bullying takes different forms and one of them is “trolling.” The term troll is in reference to the method of catching fish by trolling a baited line in the water and waiting for a fish to bite. Similarly, the Internet troll tries to “catch” an unsuspecting victim to demean and humiliate them. Many bullies think that bullying and laughing at others' capabilities or belittling them online is funny. They are defensive and quick to play the blame game when cornered or even questioned. I soon realised it was not just me, but a few other kind people who were being targeted as well. It is always pretty apparent who these people are but we choose to accept it quietly or at times even encourage such behaviour instead of condemning it. So we decided enough was ENOUGH and we would not quit, but stand together and stand up to the bullies in our PLN.
Do I call myself a victim? No, I choose not to because I am not going to let it stop me from connecting with like-minded, kind people who give me the strength and support to KEEP CALM & TWITTER ON.
Find the kind people in your life for they are the ones that matter. Thanks to @mrjhopkins and @ShiftParadigm for your ongoing support and friendship.
Image Produced by Carissa Orzlowski
Word cloud- http://thelamp.org/